CHAP. I.

Sheweth,

THAT, by Your most glorious Martyr, the stre­nuous defender of the true Christian Faith and his most gratious Master, Charles the I. of ever blessed memory; he was called and appointed to be the Bishop of Ossory; and to inable him the better to discharge his duty in the service of God, the in [...]tructing of his people, and the governing of that Diocess commended to his care, he was invested and admitted to have, and to injoy, all the rights, interests, priviledges and prerogatives of that Bishoprick.

But the Irish Rebells, through the perswasions of their Popish Priests, and suggestions of Satan, have expelled him, and detained all his dues and rights from him, about 19 years together; And when the goodness of God [Page 2] was pleased to restore the gratious Son of that gloriou [...] Martyr, unto his Crown and Dignity, his Majestie imitating the pious steps of his most Reli­gious Father, restored all the Reverend Bishops, and the rest of the Lear­ned and Loyall Clergy, unto their ancient rights and pristine dignities; the malicious enemy of all goodness, the Devill and Satanas still envying the Satan now deals with the Church of Christ, as he did with the Church of the Jews after their capti­vity. Ezra. 4. 7. Neh. 6. 1. Honour of God, and by all means striving to obscure the Glory of his Church, and the happy Restauration of his service; As formerly, after the captivity of the children of Israel, the Jews in Babylon, when, they were happily returned unto their own Land, which the God of their Fathers had bestowed upon them and their posterities for ever, and were now be­ginning to re-edify their Temple for the honour of their God, and the place of his Worship for his people, he stirred up Bishlam, M [...]thredath, Ta­beel, Samballat, T [...]biah, Geshem, and the rest of their companions, the enemies of Gods people, to hinder all their proceedings in setting forwards the true service of their God, by writing false Letters unto the King; and upon their unjust informations, procuring letters from the King, to ob­struct the building, and working of Gods House, to the great prejudice and grief of [...]ose Holy men, that aimed at nothing more then to promote the glory of God, and the good of his people; So now, he stirred up many Armed men, or men of Arms, and Commanders of men, men of Renown, that in the year 49 shewed themselves very active, and serviceable for their and our undubitable King, his now gratious Majesty, and whom his Maje­sty for that their faithfulness and service, did most gratiously, and justly according as they had deserved, most Royally, and like a King, reward them, with Cities, Lands, Houses, Gardens, and the like evidences of his Royall bounty, under the pretence of this his Majesties grant and gift, to labour and strive to swallow down the Lands and Houses, which I am sure do of right belong unto the Church of God, and am confident his Maje­sty is so pious that he never intended to reward his servants with any of those goods, of what nature soever they are, that were dedicated and set Why Lands dedicated for the service of God should not be aliena­ted. Rom. 2. 22. apart for the service of God; because the alienating of any things set apart and consecrated for Gods service, and dedicated to that end, is no less then sacriledge; and Sacriledge is a [...]n of such a transcendent nature, as is far more odious and abominable in the sight of God then most of all other sins: for St. Paul demandeth, If thou, that abhorrest Idols, wilt commit sa­criledge? And you all know, what a horrible sin Idolatry is: and how high­ly the Lord God was offended, and how grievously he punished and plagu­ed the Israelites for the same, as when he slue 3000 men, for their Idolatry Exod. 32. 28. in worshipping the golden Calfe.

And yet St. Paul sheweth herein, that sacriledge is far more odious and Why sacri­ledge is more abominable and a greater sin then Ido­latry. a more abominable sin in the sight of God; because by Idolatry, we do but give the honour of God to that which is no god; but by our sacriledge, we rob the true God of that honour which is due unto him, and we deprive him of that worship, and service, and thanks, that he should have from ma­ny men, if they were not deprived, and robbed of their estates by that sa­criledge, which makes them unable to do that service, and to bring others to do that service unto God, which they ought to do.

And therefore most justly hath that sacriledge, which is the diminution of the revenues of the Church, been ever accounted the highest, the bold­est and the most damnable sin in the World. For our Religion is the very ground of all our happiness, and the chiefest of all our comforts: and the riches, honours, and Revenues of the Church, the Tythes, Oblations, and Donations of Religious men, are, as I shall fully shew unto you in this Treatise, the very main outward props of our Religion; and if with Samp­son you take away the pillars, you overthrow the House, & sublatis studio­rum [Page 3] praemiis ipsa studia pereunt, saith Seneca; so, take away the props of Reli­gion, and your Religion, like a tottering wall, will soon fall unto the ground; and when you have supplanted our Religion, you have dissolved all the tyes and associations betwixt God and men, and left us all as aliens and strangers, and which is worse, enemies unto God. And therefore when other mischiefes have their limits, and so hurt but one or other, and there is an end, yet this sin of Sacriledge strikes at Goodness and Godliness it self, it sets the world besides its hindges, and sweeps away our peace and all our happiness from off the earth, when as God, and the King, and all of us are thereby unexpressibly damnified.

And therefore he is no better then a savage beast, and hath a heart of iron, and Cyclopick breasts, quae genuere ferae, that can invade heaven, and rob God, and put down the Prerogatives of his King, and spoil mankind of all safety: which made the very Heathens themselves to have alwaies an exceeding great reverence of the things, that were dedicated unto their gods; and, to violate the Religion of other Countries, which they thought much more vain then their own, they conceived to be so monstrous, that it was alwaies accounted inauspicious: and the wrongs done to a false deity carried an horror with it, and was usually revenged by the true God.

Yet these men, being many, rich and powerfull, both in wealth, wit, and What the men of the year 49 do say. Friends, would perswade our good King and all others, but not aright, that they are most zealous for the Church of Christ and the service of God, and what lands and houses they seek to take from us belong not to us, nor to the Church of God; and therefore that it is no sacriledge, nor any waies unjust in them, to take from us what the King hath justly bestowed on them; but it is a [...]oul imputation most uncharitably cast upon them by me, to blemish their sincerity in the service, and for the honour of God.

And therefore seeing that in foro poli, I am, like Troylus, impar congres­sus What the Au­thor doth in this c [...]nflict a­bou [...] the▪ [...]ights of the Church. 1. Thing. A hilli, Infoelix puer, too weak every way to contest with so many mag­nanimous men of Arms, that are incompassed with so many heroick friends, I must

1. Appeal to thee, O my God, and sweet Saviour Jesus Christ, and de­sire thee with the words of the Psalmist, Arise, O God, maintain thine own cause; or, as our last Translation hath it, plead thine own cause; for I am not Psal. 74. 23. able to maintain it, unless thou wilt arise to plead the cause of the helpless, and pluck thy right hand out of thy bosom to consume the enemy, and let not man have the upper hand, but do thou to them, as thou didst unto the Midianites, unto Sisera, and unto Jabin, at the brook of Kison, which perished at Endor, and became as the dung of the earth, which say, Let us take to our selves the houses of God in poss [...]ssion; and especially to them that not only say, but also do violently and sacrilegiousl [...] mis-inform good and pious Princes, and take both the houses of God and the lands of the Church into their possessions. O my God, make them like a wheel, that is alwaies tottering and turning, and as the stubble before the wind, that is ever sha­king Psal 83. 12. and never at rest, and like as the fire that burneth up the wood, and as the flame that consumeth the mountains; persecute them even so with thy tempest, and make them affraid with thy storms, that they may under­stand, what a heynous sin it is to commit Sacriledge and to rob the living God, by hindering and disinabling his servants to do him service, and to ascribe the honour due unto his name.

2. I must and will, to the uttermost of mine ability, demonstrate unto all 2. Thing. Church-robbers the heynousness of this sin, and the fearfull punishment there▪ of; and to that end,

1. I will here set down what I have written, above 45 years agone, [Page 4] concerning sacriledge, and what you may find in the True Church l. 3. c. 2. pag. 429. with some amplification and explication thereof.

2. I will, upon the resolution, and religious intention of the good and 2d. Thing. godly King David, to build God an House for his servants to meet in it to worship him, shew unto you the necessity and use of Cathedrals, and Chur­ches for Gods Worship, and the duty of all Christian Kings and Princes therein; and the full description and detestation of this horrible and most odious sin of Sacriledge. And I will do my best, to enlarge this point un­to the full; that so, my Reader may reap the full benefit of this my Dis­course, and the easier retain in his memory, what he readeth in it: and that the same good Doctrines and Instructions, the oftner, and the more usually they are published, and in the more large Volums they are printed, may the more likely have their fate to continue, when as small Treatises, espe­cially not methodically d [...]gested, are the sooner neglected, and do suffer, through the iniquity of time, to be buried in oblivion.

CHAP. II.

1. SAcriledge which the Greeks call [...], and the sacrilegious per­son Sacriledge, what it is. R [...]i sacra vio­latio aut usur­patio. Thom. prim [...] secunda q 99. Prov. 20. 25. [...], is, the usurpation, or the violation of any sacred thing: and this violation of it, is to be understood for any kind of irre­verence or dishonouring of it; & Sacrilegium dicitur quasi sacrilaedium, saith Innocentius: and as Aquinas saith, All that is sacriledge, which is done to the irreverence of any sacred thing. And Solomon saith, It is an abomina­tion to the Lord to devour things that are sanctified: Et, non owne quod displi­c [...]t dicitur abominatio; And not all things that displease God are said to be abominations; sed quod vald [...] d [...]splicet, but the things which do most highly and exceedingly displease the Lord, is said to be an abomination, saith Per [...]ld [...]s▪ S [...]m­ma Vitiorum. Peraldus.

2. You may observe, that this high displeasing-sin of Sacriledge, is mani­fold; but especially it consisteth in these three things: Sacriledge threefold, and committed 3. waye [...]. 1. Way, against sacred persons.

1. The violation and abuse offered to Sacred persons, such as are Kings and Queens, that are called and appointed by God to be nursing Fathers, and nursing Mothers unto the Church of Christ, and the Bishops, Priests, and other Ministers, that are consecrated to serve God at his Altar. Who­soever doth irreverently abu [...] any of them, either in word or deed, com­mitteth sacriledge, because they are sacred persons. And so Agesilaus was wont to say, That he did greatly wonder, why any man should think, that they are not worthily accounted in the number of sacrilegious persons, qui l [...]dere [...]t eos, qui diis supplicarent, vel Deos venerarentur, which did any wayes hurt or wrong those which did supplicate or intercede for us, and worship­ped God; whereby that most prudent Prince signified, Eos non tantu [...] sacrilegos esse, qui Deos ipsos aut Templorum ornatum spoliarent; sed [...]os maxi­me, Aemilius Pro­bus. qui Deorum ministros & praecones contumeliis aff [...]erent, saith Ae [...]ilius Pro­bus; because, that as our Saviour saith, He that despiseth you, despiseth me; Luke 10. 16. and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me.

2. The prophaning of the Church, or the abuse of any places consecra­ted 2. Way, against sacred places. for to be the places of Gods service, is no lesse than sacriledge.

3. That is sacriledge, and he is a sacrilegious person, which not only 3. Way, against sacred things. 1. Sacraments. 2. Vessels. 3 Ornaments. 4. Goods ( [...].) Lands, Houses, &c. dishonoureth and irreverently useth the sacred persons, or prophaneth the holy places, but doth take away any sacred thing, or any other thing felo­niously, by way of stealth, from any sacred place; Quia tale furtum Sacri­legium est. Because such a theft is termed sacriledge; which every other stealth, or unjust taking, or detaining of our neighbours goods is not so. Nam undecunque tollere, non est Sacrilegium committere; for all stealth, and every unjust taking away of goods, is not sacriledge; but he that taketh away any thing that is sacred, or consecrated and dedicated for the ser­vice of God, is a robber of God, and a sacrilegious person, saith S. Augu­stine; and so S. Hierom saith, Amico rapere furtum est, sed Ecclesiam fra [...] ­dare Augustine super Johan. & ha­betur 23. q. 4. Sacriledge, how different from Theft. Hierom. Ep. 34. Sacrilegium est, To steal and take away the goods of our friend or neighbour, is theft; but to take away the goods, or to defraud or cheat the Church of Christ of any thing that belongs unto the Church, is Sacri­ledge: Yea, voluntas sola quoad ecclesiam punitur. As he that looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed Adultery, and as the intention o [...] Treason against the King is Treason; So he that hath a will and a sa­crilegious intent, or but an itching desire, to defraud the Church, is a sacrilegious person, and shall no wayes escape unpunished.

And here I will briefly examine Doctor Burges his Description of Sacri­ledge, Doctor Burge [...] his Description of Sacriledge, and his infer­ence thereupon discuss [...]d; and the iniquity thereof plain­ly shewed. whereby he would fain prove, That the taking away, or selling of the Donations of holy men unto Christ and his Church, is neither Sa­criledge, nor Sin; especially the Lands of the Cathedral Churches: be­cause, saith he, Sacriledge is the robbing of God, either by alienating, detain­ing, purloyning, diverting, or perverting, that which is Gods own by Divine right, and therefore due to Christ, and thereby to his Ministers, wh [...]ther the things be set apart by express Command, or voluntarily given according to Gods special Warrant and Direction: But, saith he, The Lands given to the Bi­shops Page 8. and Cathedrals, are not Commanded by God to be given, neither had the Givers any special Warrant or Direction from God to bestow them: therefore no Sacriledge nor sin to take them away.

Where I beseech you to observe,

1. The errour and mistake of the man; for I need not have any special 1. The igno­rance of Do­ctor Burges. Warrant to do that which God gives a Generall allowance for any man to do.

2. Mark the malice and the madnesse of the man against the Bishops, and 2. The malice of the Doctor ag [...]inst the Bishops. the Cathedral Lands; for he would perswade you to believe, that these were not given according to Gods will, but without his Warrant and Di­rection: But I have, and shall shew unto you, That those holy men, which vowed and dedicated them to God, gave them not only for the proper use The speciall ends for which the lands were given to the Bishops and Cathedrals; which being taken away, alienated, and s [...]ld, these ser­vices of God cannot be per­formed. Wher­by you may perceive the great dishonor that is done to God by this Sacriledge. of the Bishops, to make themselves, like Dives, to be cloathed in Scarlet, and to fare deliciously every day, and to make their wives like Ladies, and their children great in this world: but they bestowed them for these four special ends:

1. To maintain the Bishops and their families in a fair and competent manner, and to furnish themselves with those necessaries whereby they might be inabled to preach and publish the Gospel of Christ every way, by words, writing, and printing it unto his people.

2. To edifie, repair, and beautifie, Synagogues, Temples, and Churches, for the people of God to meet in, to serve God, and to be instructed in the Faith and Doctrine of Christ.

3. To relieve the poor, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, help the fa­therlesse and widows, and the like.

4. To keep hospitality, to relieve Strangers, to redeem Captives, and to do other works of piety and charity, which the Bishops in their wisdoms [Page 6] shall think fit and requisite to be done, according to the will and good pleasure of God: And the Bishops are but intrusted as Gods Stewards to see these things faithfully discharged.

And I would gladly understand, Was it ignorance or malice, in this fel­low, to amuse and stagger the simple Readers of his Pamphlet, and to make them doubt, whether Lands given to Cathedrals, to these ends, and for these purposes, have any allowance from God, and Warrant to be agree­able to his will? when as all men know how often and how earnestly God commandeth all and every one of these things to be done: especially con­sidering that his Grand Master, Cartwright, confesseth, That now in the time of the Gospel, whatsoever is either established by Law, or conferred by man's libe­rality for the uses of Gods service, is all to be accounted sacred or holy; and for this cause, both the taking away of the whole, or the diminishing of any part of such holy things, is sacriledge condemned in Deut. 23. 21, 22, 23. and never any honest man said otherwise.

And this sin of Sacriledge, being so abominable, and so hateful in the sight of God, it must needs be plagued with intolerable punishments: and Distinct. 19. Q. Curtius l. 7. no marvel; for as Q. Curtius saith, Cum diis pugnant sacrilegi, The sacrilegi­ous persons do fight and wage war with God himself, and by all means seek to deprive him of his honour and service: And as Lucan saith, Lucan Phars. l. 3.

Who can imagine that sacrilegious persons shall escape unpunished? For if the gods should not revenge their own wrongs, Who should do it? saith the Heathen Poet: but they that were the Idols of the Heathens have done it among the Gentiles, and the true God will do it among the Christians: For as Juvenal saith,

The sacrilegious Nuns were to be interr'd, and thrown alive into the pit.

And this is the usual course and practice of God, to cause those that by Gods usuall dealing with men. the sweet promises of his mercies cannot be allured to pay their duties unto his Church, and to use a good conscience, to be frighted from robbing and abusing his Church, by the terrour of his most fearful vengeance exe­cuted upon the like offenders; that such as will not be led by his mer­cies, might be drawn by his judgements: Because that, as

Good men will not wrong the Church, for the love of God; So many times,

Many evil men, at least not very good, will forbear to rob and destroy the Church for fear of the punishment of Church-robbers. And therefore as Absolom, when he could not by promises and perswasions win Joah to be of 2 Sam. 10. his side; by firing his barly-fields, he forced him to do what he pleased: So, when the still and sweet voice of God can do no good to make Jonah to obey the Lord's command, a tempestuous whirl-wind, tumbling him to the bottom of the Sea, will bring him back to his obedience. So it may be [Page 7] when the promising of Gods blessings can work no Reformation, nor get any satisfaction for wrongs done unto the Church, Gods coming to visit them with the Rod, and to whip their sacriledge with scourges, to fill their faces with shame and confusion, and to give them fire and brimstone, storms and tempest to be their portion to drink, may a little frighten the sacrile­gious Souldiers, from laying an insupportable weight of miseries, or commit­ting a most intolerable Sacriledge against the Church of Christ.

Therefore, I thought good, to shew unto all sacrilegious persons, That as the Lords mouth hath very often, and very much spoken against this sin of Sacriledge; So the Lords hand hath neither a little, nor seldom struck­en it; and that very few men have fostered Sacriledge in their heart, and laid hold of it with their hands, but they have also born and felt heavy judgements upon their backs, either in this life, or in that which is to come.

As the Sacriledge of Achan was the Beesom that swept away the whole The punish­ment of Sacri­legious per­sons. Josh. 7. House of Achan, and the Axe that hath cut down both him and all his posterity in one day. So the Sacriledge of Gehezi, that must needs have Silver and Rayment from Naaman, for the favour that his Master had done unto him, was the Porter that brought the incurable loathsome scab 2 Reg. 5. of Leprosie upon him, and upon all his seed for ever. And so the Sacriledge of Shishak, King of Egypt, that came up against Hierusalem, and took a­way the Treasures of the House of the Lord, and the Treasures of the Kings House, and the Shields of Gold that Solomon had made, was suffi­ciently 1 Reg. 14. 25, 26. recompensed by the Thracians, that invaded, subdued, and harra­sed, all his Dominions. So likewise, the Sacriledge of Johash King of Israel, that drew a great booty out of Gods Temple, brought such a vengeance 2 Reg. 14. 14. upon him, as ended his accursed life with deadly poison. And Sennacherib that came with a fall intent to rob and plunder the Lords House in the dayes of Hezechias, was sent home with a hook in his nose, and a bridle in his lips, by the same way that he came: And, as if this was not punishment e­nough for emptying the Lords Exchequer, and his purpose to take away all the Treasure of the Temple; not long after his arrival home, his own sons Adramelec and Sharezzar, slew him in the Temple of his god Nisroch. And 2 Reg. 19. 37. Belshazzars Sacriledge, in abusing the holy vessels of Gods House, that his father had taken away from the Temple, was well enough recompensed Dan. 5. 23, 25, & 31. as you find in Dan. 5. 31. These things are Registred in the Holy Scrip­tures.

And it is recorded in the Gentile-Writers, how that the Grecians, which of all others formerly were most Victorious; yet after they had once become sacrilegious, and offered violence to the Temple of Pallas, they lost all their hope, and never thrived any more. For so Virgil saith,

And thereupon he inferreth, what I do now inforce, and what Carulus set­teth down more generally:

They ever slid and slipt and failed, after that impious Tydides, scelerum­que inventor Ʋlysses, and Ʋlysses the inventor of mischiefs, had taken a­way the Palladium, and killed the Ministers of the Temple. And so Ju­stin Justin. trist. l. 4. saith, That Philomenes, a most brave and valiant Captain, after he be­came [Page 8] Sacrilegious, Primus inter confertissimos d [...]micans, cecidit, Fighting first amongst the most excellent souldiers, he was killed; and so, saith mine Au­thor, Sacrilegii poenas impio sanguine lu [...]t, he paid for his Sacriledge with his ungodly blood; and let other Sacrilegious Captains and Souldiers fear the like fate. Lactantius also reporteth how Fulvius, the Censor, for taking Lactant. de origine error. c. 4. &c. 8. away Marmoreas tegulas, Marble-tiles from the Temple of Juno Lacin [...]a, as the long-Parliament men took away the Tiles of the Cathedrall Church of St. Keney; And Appius Clandius for alienating things dedicated to Her­cules, were most miserably plagued by the gods; the one lost both his ears, and the other was distracted of his wits: a heavy punishment! therefore for no leight sin, you may be sure.

But the time would be too long, and my papers too short for me to de­clare at large unto you, what Aulus Gellius setteth down, how that when Aulus Gell. noct. Attic. l. 3. c. 9. Quintus Cep [...]o the Consul had taken and spoiled the Town of Tolouse in France, and found there very much gold in the Churches and Temples of that City; it so fell out by the just judgment of God, that whosoever laid hands or lightly touched the gold that was taken in that spoil, mise­ro cruciabilique exitu periit, saith mine Author, he perished most misera­bly, so that it grew to be a proverb among all Nations, when any generall plague and grievous destruction happened for any sin, it was Sicut aurum Tolosanum, like the gold of Tolouse, that destroyed all that medled with it: Or to shew unto you, how P [...]rrhus and all his men were drowned for rob­bing the Treasury of Proserpina; Or of the 400 souldiers of King Xerxes, that were burnt with thunder and lightning, just as they were spoyling the Temple of Delphos; Or of Brennius, that ever before was most victorious and had sacked Rome, but had his whole Army most miserably spoiled af­ter the ransacking of the same Temple, Et Dei voluntate in se manus vertit, as Valerius Max. saith. Or of the Scythians, that were most miserably plagu­ed Val. Max. l. 1. c. 2. with many and most grievous diseases, called Enareas, that is execra­ble and accursed, for their Sacriledge in sacking the Temple of Venus Ʋrania. Or of Alexander the great; that, for abusing the consecrated ves­sels Vide Theat. judicii divini p. 439. of Hercules, in the very same City, and in the self same manner, as Belshezzar had abused the vessels of Gods Temple in Jerusalem, before him; was so suddenly stricken in the midst of his banquet, even as he was Herodotus l. 1. p 51. Agl. fol. 33. 2. p. drinking, that he groaned and cried out so as if he had been shot with a most deadly dart. Or of Antiochus Epiphanes, that died most miserably, and at his death confessed it was for his sin of Sacriledge, because he had ta­ken away the vessels of gold and the vessels of silver, that were in the Dan. 5. 2, 3, 4. Church and House of God in Jerusalem, 1 Mach. 6. Or of Heliodorus, Q. Curtius. l. 10. p 415. that being sent to rob the Temple, there appeared unto him two men, sent from Heaven, which whipped him continually so long and so much, that he fell down in the Temple, and there lay groveling and destitute of all help, untill at the request of his souldiers, the Priests of God prayed for him: Or of Pompeius Magnus, who is noted by Titus Livius and Cicero, to be one Mach. 2. 3. of the most fortunate and most successfull Souldiers in the World; yet af­ter he had robbed the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, and spoiled those sacred things, that belonged unto the Church, he never prospered; but, sicut unda supervenit undam, as one wave followeth after another, so ill successes, losses, and misfortunes followed and succeeded one after another to him, untill at last he made an end of an unhappy life by a miserable death, when he was most perfidiously slain by Achillas: Or of Ananias and Saphira who, because they did secretly withhold some part of that, which they had voluntarily once resolved to dedicate for Gods service, and the mainte­nance of his servants, they were presently stricken with sudden death: Or, if I should speak of many more, whose tragicall ends Eusebius, Jose­phus [Page 9] and other writers both Ecclesiasticall and prophane have set down, Aulus Gellius l 3. c. 9. Sacrum sacrove commendatum qui dempserit rapuerit (que) par­ricida esto: we shall find, that whatsoever they got and pillaged from the Church and Temples of the gods, it is like aurum Tolossanum, the gold of Tolossa, the which whosoever touched did most miserably perish, as I shewed to you before; for it fares with them as it did of old with the Eagle, whereof the Christian Poet saith,

The which my Countrey-man thus excellently translates;

And so the gain of a little, unjustly gotten, proved to be the loss of all that she might justly have injoyed.

And, as the best Poet, in the best Verse of all his works, by the testimo­ny of Apollo his Oracle, saith

The sacrilegious persons were best to learn to be just, and not to despise the gods, and spoile the goods, that are dedicated to their service; because, as Seneca saith, Sacrilegi dant poenas, quamvis nemo usque ad Deos manus porri­gat; Seneca de bene­fic. l. 5. c. 12. the sacrilegious persons and robbers of the Church-rights shall never escape unpunished, though no man should lift up his hands and cry to the gods against them, as it appeareth sufficiently by the examples before cited.

But it may be some will say, they were no gods whose examples you fore­cited, Obj. and their Temples were no Churches, nor houses of the true God, but of mortall wicked men and women, whom the Gentiles, that knew not God, deified and adored them for gods; and therefore that could be no sacriledge, to take away things dedicated to Idols, and consecrated for the service of Devils, and not of God; and their punishment, for whatsoever it was, was not, and could not be supposed to be for sacriledge, when as the robbing of those Temples and those false gods cannot be said to be sacri­ledge: Which is rei sacrae violatio, as I said before.

I answer, That, as St. Paul would not have the Christians to eat of that Sol. which is offered in Sacrifice unto Idols, because it was consecrated for the 1 Cor. 10. 28. The Temples of the false gods not to be violated, and why. Idol, and so dedicated to the false god, which the Apostle saith was none other then the Devil, vers. 20. whom notwithstanding they deemed and worshipped for the true God; So Lactantius saith that the true God would not have those things, that belonged any waies to any, taken for a deity, [Page 10] though they were but false gods, and no gods, but only supposed deities, as all those aforenamed were supposed and believed to be by the Gentiles to be any waies prophaned and abused by wicked men, especially by those, that took those idols to be gods, as all those sacrilegious persons afore-named, Tydides, Ʋlysses, Philomenes, Fulvius, Appius, Cepio, and the rest, took Pal­las, Venus, Juno, Jupiter, Apollo, and the like, for their gods and goddesses to be worshipped; therefore, whatsoever the robbing of those Temples had been unto the Christians, that knew them to be the houses of Devils and not of God; yet, to these men, and to all others, that believed them to be gods, the robbing of them and their Temples, could be judged no less then Sacriledge; and therefore that they ought to suffer the just and severe pu­nishment of Sacriledge: And besides, God would not suffer these men to escape the hands of justice for their Sacriledge, and the spoiling of these false gods, lest that by the like robbers, his own Church and servants might be oppressed and spoiled, as they are in many places under this pretence, that our Churches are not the Houses of God, nor we the true servants of Jesus Christ.

But let these men take he [...]d, lest the like judgments fall on them, as have befallen on the like Sacrilegious persons; for God is still the same, and hath still the same care of his service and servants: and I have heard his name, that, riding through Saint Pauls Church yard, in the daies of A true story very remark­able. King Henry the 8th. looked up towards the top of the Church, and said, I hope I shall see that lead turned into silver and gold into my purse, ere it be long. And a poor woman said, I hope, I shall see thee hanged first. A rash speech, and a harsh hope; yet, it happened right; for within a few years after, the gentleman was executed and ended his life at Tiburn; and Saint Pauls Church stands yet unbestript of her cloathing: Sic pereant inimici tui Domine; So let all thine enemies perish, O God, that say unto them­selves, let us take the Houses of God in possession; make them ( O Lord) like Oreb and Zeb, and like unto the dung of the earth, as the Holy Prophet Ps. 74. 10, 11. speaketh.

And I say to these Sacrilegious persons as the holy woman Delphina In the life of St. Elzear. p. 26. said to her husband Saint Elzear, Count of Sabran, Take heed that you at­tempt not to lay your hands on that which is vowed to God; or dedicated to his service: because God will not be mocked, he cannot endure to be robbed, or suffer his service to be prejudiced and abated, by taking away the means that should maintain it; but he will punish them, and powre down vengeance upon the heads both of them and of their posterity, that take away the Lands, Houses, and Possessions of the Church, that were vowed and dedicated to Jesus Christ to relieve his members, and to uphold his service: as you may well understand, if you do but consider it by that memorable example of As I remem­ber. Dr. Hanmer in the History of Ireland. William Earl Marshall of this Kingdom of Ire­land; who, when he had appeased the Rebellion, that then rose in his time, took a great deal of the lands of the Church into his own hands; and the Bishop, because he would not restore it unto the Church, excom­municated him for the same, and he went to the King and complained; but before the Bishop could come to his answer he died, and was buried in that Excommunicated estate; yet, his son entreated the King to cause the Bishop to absolve him, which he did conditionally, that his son would restore those lands unto the Church, which the son denying, God denied his bles­sing to his posterity, that there is not one heir Male of him left upon the face of the earth, to injoy those lands, that he Sacrilegiously took away from the Church.

Neither do I see, how it can be otherwise; for the very Heathens that had not the knowledge of Gods laws, nor of Jesus Christ, could say, that [Page 11] vulgò ereditum est, it was generally by all men believed, some fatall and fearfull punishment must needs be imminent to that man, qui sacris rebus ac Deo dicatis manus injiceret, aut qui pios homines; aut certè fungentes sacris ministeriis, oppugnaret; which should lay his hands to take away any sacred thing, or offer any injury to any godly man, or oppose and wrong them es­pecially that administer holy things: and to that end, to confirm this truth they did proverbially recite that Homerical distich, Homer I [...]. [...].

Which in effect, signifieth thus much, that, although God wisheth well to every man, and takes no pleasure in the destruction of his Creatures, which he made, that they might have their being, and be happy, if they did not offend; yet, if any man will be so wicked, as by his Sacrilegious do­ings, to strive with God, to despise his maker, and to spoil his servants, whom God wisheth well unto; then certainly, damnum huic imminet ingens; a mighty mischief, and some fearfull evil doth hang over such a mans head, and he shall not escape it.

And therefore, let all men take heed and beware of Sacriledge, for though it may seem a sweet spoil; yet, it will prove at last to be as perni­tious, Josh. 7. 25. as Achan's wedge, or as fatall as Turnus his luckless b [...]lt, that be­reaved him of his life, which otherwise, he might have injoyed, and have received pardon; when Christ, beholding the stollen cognizance of his beloved spouse, shall take away his mercy, and shut up his loving kindness in displeasure, (which otherwise he would have gratiously shewed); and Infoelix humer [...] cum apparuit ingens Balteus, & no­ti [...] fulserunt cingula bullis Pallantispuert▪ Virgil. l. 12. shall adde some further vengeance, saying, as Aeneas did to Turnus; when he beheld the belt,

This is laid on thee for thy Sacriledge, one torture more for that; for I would heartily wish, that all Sacrilegious persons Lords, Souldiers, Knights, or Gentlemen, would diligently mark and weigh, and never for­get the manner of Christ his behaviour, when he came into the Temple, how Joh. 2. 14. different it was from his usual carriage at all other times; for he that was the Instrument of Mercy, and descended from Heaven, cum amore, non fla­gello, and came to pardon, and not to punish; yet he, that was so ready, and so willing and well-pleased to pardon Theeves, Adulterers, and other wicked nefarious fellows, and called all such as were weary and heavy laden with the burden of their sins, and promised that he would [...]ase them; When he saw how his Sanctuary was abused, by those sacrilegious Mer­chants Matth. 11. 2 [...]. that bought and sold therein, He puts on Justice and Severity; and, as it appears, more angerly than ever he seemed to be, while he walked here on earth, [...]umbled down the tables of those Money-changers, and the violators of holy things, and chaced them with a whip-cord, both from Himself, and from his Temple; And he tells them the reason why he was so exceedingly angry, which was, because they had so highly, and so vildly transgressed, in making his House, which was the House of prayer, to be­come, by their sacriledge, a den of Theeves. O consider this, all ye that commit Sacriledge, and forget God; lest he teary you in pieces, while there is none to help you. And you that are brave Souldiers, and commit Sa­criledge, consider also, what Charles the Great, that was as great, and as brave a Souldier, as any that was in the World in his dayes, saith to you [Page 10] [...] [Page 11] [...] [Page 12] all: Novimus multa regna & reges eorum propterea cecidisse, quia Ecclesias Verba Garoli Magni, in ca­pital. Catul. tit. 7. c. 104. spoliaverunt, resque earum vastaverunt, alienaverunt vel dirip [...]erunt; Epis­copisque & Sacerdotibus, atque, quod majus est, Ecclesiis eorum abstulerunt & pugnantibus dederunt; quapropter nec fortes in bell [...], nec in fi [...]e stabiles fue­runt, nec victores extiterunt, sed terga multi vulnerati & plures interfecti ver­terunt, regnaque & regiones, & quod pejus est regna coelestia perdiderunt, at­que propriis haereditatibus caruerunt & hactenus carent. And it will be worth your labour, to remember, what commands that wise and strenuous Earl of Strafford delivered for his children, ( i. e.) to his son William Went­worth, The Earl of Straffords speech at his death. commends himself, Gives him charge, to serve his God, to submit to his King, with all faith and alleagiance in things temporal, to the Church in things spiritual; Gives him charge, as he will answer it to him in Heaven, never to meddle with the Patrimony of the Church, for it will be the canker that will eat up the rest of his estate: Again, chargeth him, as he will answer him in Heaven, never to meddle with it.

And yet notwithstanding all the sayings and perswasions of wise men, and the severe punishments threatned against all, and executed upon so ma­ny sacrilegious persons, as we read of in all Histories; we find, as S. Ber­nard saith, The houses of the Bishops, and the Revenues of Gods servants, Bernard Epist. [...]2 [...]. have, against all Law and Right, been heretofore given to Souldiers, and others, that were Rebels, to be inhabited. And as Victor Ʋticensis saith, Vict. Ʋticen. de Hist. Vandal [...] ­rum. l. 1. The richest Robes and Furnitures of the Church and Church-ministers, were taken to make shirts and breeches for wicked and most bloody men: And the Church it self, which is Domus oration [...]s, the House of prayer, the House of God, and the place where his Honour dwelleth, to be made Stabulum Psal. Polycrat. l. 7. c. 21. Stipendium militum, dispen­dium innocen­tium. opilionis, a store-house for the wool, and a stable for the horses of the Church­robbers: as Johannes Sarisbur, saith.

And have we not seen all this, and much more done, now of late, during the reign of the Great Antichrist, the long Parliament, and that vile Usur­per Crumwells time? Nay, Have I not my self seen, the Chancel of a Church made a kitchen to dress meat in it? and the Church it self an Ale-house, to intertain Drunkards; and the children digging up their fathers bones out of their Sepulchres? Which Suidas calleth [...], The removing of such things, that should by no meanes be removed. Let the lamentable and most shameful devastation, throwing down of Tombs, and digging up of Sepulchres of the most stately, and formerly beautiful Cathedral-Church of Kilkeny, and the dilacerating of the Bishops Lands, and distributing it among the Souldiers, that still detain it from the Church to this very day, and the greedy desire of the Souldiers to take more and more from it, be a witness of the Sacriledge of these times.

And yet, as Dionysius Senior, that Arch-robber of Temples, when he had taken away the Golden beard of Aesculapius, said, It was unfit that Apollo should be without a beard, and Aesculapius his son to have one; when, according to the Gentiles divinity, they feigned Apollo beardless, and Aesculapius with a long grave beard, because every good Physitian should be a man of great experience, and of much knowledge in many things. And when he took away the golden Coat from Jupiter Olympius, Vide Valer. Max. l. 1. c. 2. de Potitio non observante sa­cra, &c. Justin. l. 21. and instead thereof bestowed upon him a wollen cloak, he said, That a golden Coat was too heavy for the Summer, and too cold for Winter; but his cloath Coat would fit both times far better. And so when he spoiled the Temple of Proserpina, and immediatly after had a very prosperous wind for his Navy to sail withal, he jeeringly said, You see what a prosperous sail the gods do grant to sacrilegious persons: thereby signifying, that either he believed, that there was no god, or that god cared not what Sacriledge should be committed; and yet he thrived and prospered in all his wicked [Page 13] courses. Even so our Church-robbers do spend their dayes in wealth, and pass their times in pleasure, and their seed seemeth to be established after them; and therefore thinking themselves sure, and their Sacriledge to be Et hoc modo sa­crilegia minuta puniuntur, mag­na vero in tri­umphis ferun­tu. Ʋt ait [...]e­neca Epist. 87. no sin, and so neither caring for Gods Service, nor fearing any of Gods threatning [...], nor regarding the examples of Gods vengeance, executed for lesse Sacriledge, they go on in their purposes, to devise new sleights, and by a strong hand, and great friends, to rob Gods Church, and to impoverish his servants, by taking away their lands, houses, and possessions from them, and threatning them, if once they dare say, that this their doings is any Sacriledge, or any wayes amiss.

And thus, as the Harlot commits Adultery, and then wipes her mouth and is clean; so these men commit this horrible sin, and prospering in the world, they think themselves safe and free from all blame. But I will an­swer these men with holy Job, that it is very true, that many times the ta­bernacles of robbers do prosper, and wicked men continue rich, as the rich Glut­ton Job 126. &c. 21. vers. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. did to his dying day: their Bull gendereth and faileth not, their Cow calveth and casteth not her Calf, they send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance; they take the Timbrell and Harp, and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ; and so they spend their dayes in mirth, and have all the felicity that this world can afford them; health, wealth, ho­nour, and prosperity. And the Prophet David, speaking of the same kind of people, saith, They are inclosed in their own fat, and their mouth speak­eth Psal. 17. 10, 14, proud things, they have children at their desire, and they leave the rest of their substance for their babes. And in another place he saith, They are in no peril of death, but are lusty and strong, and are victorious over their ene­mies; Yea, they come in no misfortune like other folk, neither are they plagued like other men; but their eyes swell with fatness, and they do even what they list; Lo, these are the ungodly, these prosper in the world, and these have ri­ches, Psal. 73. 4, 5, 7, 12. Yea, and our lands and houses, even the lands of the poor innocents, that never offended, in possession. And so you see, how many times, the most wicked worldlings, hypocrites, idolaters, and sacrilegious persons, may have exemption and freedom from all evil, for th [...]y come in no misfortune like other folk; and may have an accumulation of all good things; for they prosper in themselves, in their off-spring, and in their fortunes. And the experience of all times, and especially of our own time, in what we see, doth make this plain unto us, that for a time they do, and may prosper.

But do you think, that this prosperity in their wickedness is any happiness The prosperity of the wicked a most heavy judgement of God. unto them? No sure, it is the heaviest judgement that could fall upon them, to be freed from punishments, when they have so highly transgressed God's Commandments; because, all this time of their flourishing prosperity, God forgets not their impiety, but hath it sealed up among his treasures, and re­mits not their punishment, but transfers it to another time: When, as the usurer makes his debter pay dear for his forbearance; so these tran­scendent offenders shall reap no benefit by God's patience, unless that brings them to repentance: But, as it had been far better for Dives to have had his punishment in this life, than to be here in perpetual happiness for a short time, and after that, to be eternally tormented: So it were far better for Murderers, Oppressors, and Church-robbers, to have their punishment in this life, t [...]an pay so deer for the use of their prosperity, and the deferring of their just deserved punishment for the life to come.

And therefore we ought to distinguish, and to put a difference as Hesiod Hesiodus, l. 1. saith, be [...]wixt [...], and [...]: that is riches and possessions taken by violence, and riches given by Gods benevolence. And Alciat. Erubl. 128. pag. 462. as another saith, [...]; It is good to be [Page 14] rich by Gods gift, that needs not fear Gods curse; But it is very evil, to grow great, and to become rich by rapine, and snatching goods and lands from God and man; for that shall never escape the just deserved punish­ment: And therefore Euripides saith,

That is in effect, Procure not to thy self any wealth, by any unjust means, if thou wouldst have them to continue with thee without punishment; be­cause that whatsoever thou gatherest unjustly and bringest to thy house wrongfully, either from God or man, Prince or peasant, it can not be safe; Yea, though thou shouldst seem for a long time to be in peace and free from all danger; for, as Optatus saith against the Donatists, An quia cessat talis modò vindicta, ideo tibi cum tuis vind [...]cas innocentiam? Are you therefore innocent; because God doth not presently punish you? so may I say to all Sacrilegious persons, and to all other oppressors and unjust men whatsoever; Do you think your selves happy, and free from all blame and deserve no punishment, because you do injoy your spoils and Church-goods or lands peaceably? by no means: Quia aliud mis [...]ricorditer dat Deus, aliud habere si [...]it iratus, because it is one thing when God bestoweth Wealth, Ho­nours, Glossa ordinar: in [...]ob 12. and Lands upon us in mercy, and out of his love to us; and it is another thing when he suffereth us to injoy them, when he is angry, and most wrathfu [...]ly displeased with us; and though we may and ought to be glad and rejoyce for the one, yet ought we to be sad and sorrowfull for the others; because all the wealth in the World is not answerable to the wrath of God, but I had rather be a beggar with his love, then to possess the wealth of Croesus and the honours of Augustus with his anger; and angry he must needs be with them, that take away the Lands and Houses of his ser­vants, that serve him at his Altar; whereby they are disabled, either to serve him, or to teach his people, which must therefore perish, because thou doest rob the Church, and unjustly take away that, which is none of thine; for seeing, as S. Augustine saith, Hoc jure possidetur quod justè, & hoc justè quod bene; igitur omne quod malè possidetur alienum est; That is rightly pos­sessed, which is justly gotten; and that is justly gotten, which is well gotten, without fraud, without violence: therefore all whatsoever is naughtily got­ten, that is unjustly possessed, and is none of thine; and whatsoever we do hold and enjoy, that is none of our own, though we should possess it ne­ver so long, and enjoy it never so peaceably without punishment, and with­out being once questioned for it; yet at last, the just God, that useth to bear with offences long, will require a strict account for our unjust taking, Quia s [...]pe Deus hic parci [...], ut illic s [...]viat. and more unjust detaining thereof; and he will then recompense his long forbearance with severity of vengeance, and our punishment shall be the sorer in the next life, because that, like Dives, we have escaped all punish­ment in this life. And for those lands and goods thus sacrilegiously got­ten, De male qu [...] ­sitis vix gau­det tertius haeres. and unjustly possessed, we may truly say, That his posterity, for whose in [...]iching he underwent the wrath of God, shall not likely enjoy them long. But as the Ark of God, when it was taken from the Levites, could find no resting place among the Philistines, but was removed from Asdod to Gath, and from Gath to Ekron, and so from one place to another, till it came to its own proper place; so God may deal, and commonly doth use to deal, with them that take away the goods, lands, and houses of his Church, Petrus Blesen­sis Epist. 10. Quae malignè contraxit pater, pejori luxu refundet filius. That which the [Page 15] father hath sacrilegiously snatched, and most wickedly scraped together, the And were it no [...] that I am [...]oa [...] to disgrace the present posteri­ty of sacrilegi­ous parents, I could shew you many brave fa­milies in Eng­land that came to utter ruine, since the time of Henry the Eighth, for this very sin of Sa­criledge. son, or at least the grand-child, shall as loosely scatter it abroad; and so it shall passe and repasse from one to another, until it be far enough from him and his, for whom it was at first collected: and the sacrilegious father shall gain nothing by his wicked sacriledge, but the wrath and judgement of God against himself, and the curse of God to remain upon his posterity: be­cause God hath threatned, to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate him: and I think none hates him, if the sacrilegious persons love him, that do both rob, and as I shewed before, war against him.

CHAP. III.

BUt having heard of the odiousness, and punishment of this horrible sin of Sacriledge, we may do well to take notice of the divers kinds of sa­crilegious persons; and I find them specially to be of two sorts: 2 Sorts of sa­crilegious per­sons.

That is

• 1. They that do it under the colour of Law, and upon pretence of Reformation of the Church, and abuses crept into the Church.
• 2. They that do it against all Law, without any colour of right, and to the rooting out of all Piety and Religion.

1. It is reported, that when Constantine became a Christian, and indow­ed 1. Legal sacri­legious persons How th [...]y say, Poison entred into the Church; and how ill it is now cured. the Church of Christ with large Revenues, a voice was heard from Hea­ven, saying, Hodiè venenum intravit in Ecclesiam; This day is poison pour­ed out into the Church, which was indeed from Hell, when the envious man, that holds it for a Maxim, Quod non oportet Christum ditescere; That Christ which was born poor, should not become rich: and much less, should the servants become wealthy, when the Master is alwayes poor. But he might have as well said, This day is honey entred into the Church, for, as of wealth, if you have too much, it may prejudice you; so of honey, if you Prov. 25. 16. eat too much, it will make you to vomit, saith Solomon: When as a competency of either, may do much good, and no hurt: but his poison is alwayes bad, and seldom doth any good, unlesse it be very well and wisely tempered with good ingredients. But howsoever, so it happened to the Church, and to the servants of Christ, that the world and worldly men said, how truly I cannot judge, This wealth and promotion, brought [...]ase, and pride and luxury amongst them; which might be so to some of them, but questionless not to all, nor to most of them: yet however, as swelling waters, when they are at the highest, must needs fall and be scattered; so say the men that either envied at the Prosperity of the Church, or desired the Reformation of what they conceived amiss, This poison must be purged, or the honey vomi­ted, before the Church could be healed of her infective tumours, or the Clergy cleansed from their pride, and luxury. And therefore an Antidote must be sought, and a Remedy must be found, to allay that evil, which the Good abused had produced forth: but how this should be done, the Physi­tians, either through ignorance knew not, or through envy and malice to the Church and Church-men, would not know, what was best, for the good of [Page 16] the Church, or the Glory of God, and the propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but what through Pride, Ambition, and Covetousness, they thought best and most available for themselves.

And therefore, as the Manichees condemned all Christianity, because there V [...]strum ocul [...]m mal [...]v [...]lus [...] insolam paleam inducit: nam & triticam ibi [...]ito videretur, si & esse velletis. Aug. contra Faust. Man. l. 5. c. 22. were some evil men, that went under the name of Christians▪; to whom Saint Augustine answereth, that if their malice did not blind them, they might have seen wheat as well as chaffe upon the floor of Gods Church; so might the Reformers have seen many pious Bishops, and other famous Clergy-men that had done very many good deeds, erecting Colledges, build­ing Churches and Hospitals, and relieving many of the members of Christ, with the revenues of the Church, as well as some few proud and ambitious Prelates. Or else, as the Donatists refused the bl [...]ssed Sacraments, because some of the Priests that administred them were wicked; to whom also, the Idem contr lit. Petiliani. l. 2. c. 30. same Saint Augustine answereth, that they must needs erre, when they will violate the Sacraments of God for the sins of men, or refuse his gif [...]s, be­cause they like not the bearers; for who would reject a pretious Jewel sent him from his Majesty, because he liked not the messenger that brought it? What the Reformers did in the Usurpers time. Or rather, as Lycurgus rooted up all the Vines in his Countrey, because he saw many men were made drunk and mad with wine, to whom Plutarch answereth, that he might have seen many more good men, without any of­fence, cherished and refreshed with wine; and therefore he should have ra­ther digged some wells neer unto the Vines, to mix the wine with some water, and so to take away the abuse of the wine, and to prevent drun­kenness, and not to root up the Vines, to deprive the good and sober men from the use and benefit thereof: Even so did the pretended Reformers of the Church imitate Lycurgus to a hair, rob the Church and left her a beg­gar, to take away as they said her pride; they did not wash away the Paupertatem summis ingeniis obesse, ne pro­vehantur. stains of her garment, but took her cloathes quite away, and left her na­ked unto the World, in steed of pride for her former glory, to be now a­shamed for her present misery, when she is rather scorned then respected or reverenced, by all worldlings and the enemies of the Church, as are also both her Ministers and her Children; whereby they might say with Alciat. Embl. 120. And as Juve­nal saith▪ Nil habet in­foelix paupertas d [...]rius in se, Quàm q [...]od ri­diculos homines facit. Neither 1. G [...]d, nor 2. Christ, nor 3. Reason, teach us to re­form abuses, as Sacrilegious persons do. Alciat,

But to this we do answer, that neither God, which is the God of justice; nor Christ, which left his actions for our instructions; nor ratio sana, Reason it self, which should guide all wise men, in all their doings; have ever taught us this preposterous course, and most impious lesson, For the abuse of good things, especially in Gods service, to take away the things themselves that should preserve and uphold the service of God. For

1. When Saul abused his state and his whole Kingdom, Samuel saith not, the Lord will annihilate and bring to nought the Kingdom of Israel; 1 Sam. 15. but he saith, He hath rent thy Kingdom from thee, and he hath given it to thy neighbour which is better then thou: And when Eli the Priest, abused his 1 Sam. 31. 35. place and neglected his office and the service of God, the Lord saith not, I 1. How God dealeth with things that are abused. will cut off the Priest-hood from Israel, or I will deface the glory and beau­ty of it; but, I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy Fathers house, and I will raise me up a faithfull Priest, that shall do according to that, which is in mine heart, and in my mind, and I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk [Page 17] before mine Anointed for ever. And I would to God the reformers of abuses in Religion would have imitated the doings of God herein, when they can never have a better pattern, that is, to remove those Bishops or Priests that do indeed neglect their duties or abuse their Offices; (and not take away the means and maintenances of their places) and put other better, and more carefull men in their rooms: for here you see we are taught, that God doth not, as the Romans did, alter the whole state of their Government for the wickedness of Tarquinius, and the rest of their tyrannous Kings, I say God Titus Livius l. 1. doth not for the sins, either of Prince or Priest, change the manner of Go­vernment, or abrogate the Priviledges, or lessen the demaines of either Of­fice, but he Translateth the Office with all the dignities and appurtenances to a worthier person, that should bring forth more and better fruits to the glory of God; and I wish King Henry the 8 th. had done, and all other Kings and Princes would do, the like. 2 How Christ dealt with the Temple when it was propha­ned. Matth. 21. 12, 13.

2. When our Saviour found such gross abuses in the Temple, so that they had made the House of God a den of thieves; yea, Sacrilegious thieves; yet he doth not offer to pull down the Temple, and to turn it to Prophane uses, though they had prophaned it; or transfer it to build them houses, as our men do, with the ruines of Gods House; or to take away the lands, tythes, and revenues of those Priests, by whose neglect and default, the Holy Tem­ple became thus grossly abused, either to maintain their lawfull Wars, or to continue their unlawfull delights; but he dealeth better and taketh away the abuse, by driving away the buyers and sellers out of the Temple, and out of the Courts of the Lords House, and overthrowing the tables of the money changers, and the seats of them that sold Doves; and so he restored the House of Prayer to its old use and Pristine Dignity, to be a fit▪ House for Gods service: and so should we restore things abused, to their old and good former use; and not take them to our selves, or give them away to others.

3. Reason it self teacheth us to take this course, and to distinguish be­twixt 3. What Reason teacheth us in this case, of good things abused. that fault, which proceedeth, ex natura facti, out of the nature of the fact, and that which springeth, ex abusu boni, from the abuse of that which is good; for if the thing be simply evil, no circumstance, no dispen­sation can make it good; and therefore it should be wholly rejected and abolished; because, as Aristotle saith, Cujus usus simpliciter malus est, ipsum Arist. Topic. 1. Siusus princi­palis alicujus rei sit mortifer, mortiferam quo­que rem ipsam efficiet. quodque malum esse, necesse est; that thing, whose use is simply evil, must needs be likewise evil of it self; but if the fault be not in the thing it self, but adven [...]i [...]io [...]s, in usu agentis, in the use, or rather in the abuse, of the agent; then certainly the thing it self, as being good, ought to be retained, and the abuse only is to be removed or amended.

And therefore the endowing of Gods Church with means to maintain Gods service, or the giving of our goods to the use of Gods Worship, whe­ther it be praying to him, or preaching to his people, or relieving his Navar. En­chi [...]id. c. 14. members; being not only simply good, but also most excellently good, both commanded, and commended by God himself, it is a Maxime, even in na­ture, Things once dedicated to God, may not at any time, by any body, be ali [...]nated from the Church. and confirmed by meer reason, that Semel Deo dicatum, non est ad usus humanos ulterius transferendum, that which is once given and dedicated for, and to Gods service, which is a service acceptable to God, ought not afterwards by any means be any more transferred to mans uses; because, as Plato saith, Quae rectè data sunt, [...]ripi non licet; those things, that are well given, ought not to be taken back again; and because, as the Fathers say, Bis Dei sunt, quae sic Dei sunt; God hath in all dedicated things, that are given to uphold his service, a double right and interest.

1. As his own Creatures, and gift given to man. And

2. As in a thankfull acknowledgment of Gods goodness, the gift of man [Page 18] back again to God; which twofold cord tieth them so strong, that this sin deserves no less, than the heavy curse of Anathema, for any one, not conse­crated, to do the service of God, to challenge them and to take them away from Gods service, and the donors first institution; whereupon, not only 6. Decret. de reg. juris. Plato Phileb. 1 Chron. 29. 14. Plin. 2. Ep. l. 10. Epist. 74, 75. the Divines but also the Philosophers and Canonists have concluded, that, Si facta aedes sit, licet collapsa sit jam, religio tamen ejus occupavit locum: If an house be once dedicated to God, though afterwards it should fall down, and be utterly demolished, so that the ruines of it could scarce be seen; yet, the soil and ground of it is still holy and religious, and not to be imployed to any civill or prophane uses.

And therefore I say that those men, which have or do or shall, under the colour of Reforming the Church, and the pretence of any law, rob the Church, and deprive either the Bishops or Ministers of their houses, lands, or tythes, or any other portion, which hath been given to the Church, and for the service of God, are Thieves, and Sacrilegious thieves, be they who you will, and their pretences what they will.

And here I must tell you, that I find two sorts of men, that may be que­stioned Two sorts of men guilty of Sacriledge un­der pretence of law. for being guilty of this sin of Sacriledge.

1. The Spirituall-men, the Bishops and other Priests, the Ministers of Gods Church, that have made away the lands, houses, and goods of the Church.

2. The Lay-Princes, Lords, and Gentlemen, and others that take away the goods, lands, and houses of the Church; and all, as both these sorts of men pretend, by the right and benefit of the Law, and therefore no waies offending, and so not to be taxed for any Sacriledge.

But to discuss these points, and to find out the truth, I say, that al­though the Pope be not the [...], the great Antichrist that was ex­pected to come into the Church, as I have fully shewed in my book de Antichristo: yet, I doubt not, but that he is [...], the great Sacrile­gus, and the chiefest Sacrilegious person, that ever these Kingdoms saw; as hereafter, I shall more fully declare unto you.

Next I say, that others, Bishops and Priests especially of his Church; 1 Spirituall men Sacrilegi­ous, and how. may be as indeed many of them have been, very Sacrilegious, and robbers of the Church of Christ; as when they let out either by Lease or fee-farm, to their children, friends, or for fine, the lands, houses, or any other goods and possessions of the Church, to the loss and prejudice of the Church, and to disinable their successors, to discharge their duties and the service of God as they ought to do.

But they will say with St. Paul that, Where no Law is, there is no trans­gression; Obj. Rom. 4. 15. and there was no Law to inhibite them to lease out their lands to whom they would; nay, the Law gave them leave and impowred them to do it; and therefore no Sacriledge nor offence in them in all that they did, when they did nothing but according to Law.

I answer, that the Human law must not intrench, nor can infringe the Sol. law of God, nor any waies allow the thing, that should prejudice the ser­vice of God; neither do I believe, that the laws of our Christian Kings, and Princes ever intended so to do; for it is an old rule in law, that, Prae­latus ecclesiae statum, & possessiones meliorare potest, sed deteriorare non potest, nec debet.

But when it was alledged and manifested in Parliaments that the houses belonging to the Church, being ruined or far out of reparation, and the lands either wast or not well managed, could not be improved to the best advantage and benefit of the Church, without the Tenants and present Occ [...]piers thereof had some competent time therein: therefore the pious Kings enacted their laws, not to force but to licence Cathedrals and Col­ledges [Page 19] to lease out their lands and possessions, not to make their children Why Bishop [...] and Clergy­men were permi [...]ed to gran [...] le [...]se [...] of the lands and re­venues of the Church. and friends Knights and Ladies, or to fill their own [...]ossers with sines, to the great prejudice of their successors, and the neglect and treading down of Gods servi [...]e, but that the revenue, and the inheri [...]ance of the Church might be improved, and the best advantage made of it for the glory of God and the furtherance of Gods service, by the instruction of his people, and relieving his poor members, for which ends it was first dedicated unto God.

Therefore, when either Bishop or any other Clergy man, from the letter of the law, doth pervert the end and abuse the meaning of the law; I make it a case of Conscience and demand, Whether such men, as do let out the lands and houses of the Church for their own private gain, and not for the benefit of Gods Church and the advancement of Gods service, do not commit this horrible sin of Sacriledge? For my part, I conceive them to be the worst and most Sacrilegious persons of all others, that should know the truth, and not give such ill examples both of Covetousness and Sacriledge unto their neighbours: but let them lease what they will for the benefit of How the Bis­hops and other Clergy-men may lease their Lands without Sacriledge. Gods Church, the furtherance of Religion, and the no-prejudice of their successors, and they shall never find me to oppose them; But otherwise, to lease the lands of the Church, that is better worth then a 100 l. per annum, for less then a 100 s. for to make our children great and the Church poor, to benefit our selves and to prejudice Gods service, and to say, We have a law, that warrants us to do it; We have Acts of Parliament that allow it, and have the practice and presidents of other Bishops, Deans, and Chapters, that have done it; is but to say, as the Jews said to Pilate, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die. And ought he therefore to die, think you, be­cause, these Jews had such a law? I verily think, not so; and I think like­wise, that though you have, or should have, a law to take away and alienate the rights of the Church; yet you should not do it, if you love the Church, or do any waies fear God.

And for the practice of some other Bishops, Deans, and Chapters, I con­fess heretofore many of them have done bad enough, and worse, in my mind, then the worst of lay men; for them to sell the rights of the Church, and so, with Judas, to betray their Master Christ; but Vivitur praeceptis non exemplis; if the practice and presidents of others, would or could excuse our faults, then Drunkards, Whore masters, and Murderers might easily find presidents enough to excuse their wickedness: and so I know the Sacri­legious persons may as easily find the like.

But I shall hereafter shew you how and by whose power and by what By whole power the laws for leasing and passing away the Church­lands came to be made. Consider that. means, these our Laws and Acts of Parliament, for the alienating, leasing and selling of the revenues of the Church came to be made, and leave it to any pious mind, and conscientious man to consider, Whether they ought, in the strictness thereof, to be observed or not: and not rather commend the care and great piety of our late most gratious King, and now glorious Martyr Charles the I. Who a little to curb the extravagancies and large extent of our laws, by his regall Authority wrote his letters to all Bishops, Deans, and Chapters, that they should lease out their lands for no longer term, then 21 years, as it appeareth by this his most gratious and pious Letter, direct­ed unto my self, the Dean, and Chapter of the Cathedrall Church of Ban­gor; which, for the honour and praise and our thankfulness to so pious and so Religious a King, for his care and love to the Church and service of God, I thought it my duty to insert it in this place.

Whereby you may perceive, that the same holy Spirit that led this blessed King to be of this mind, doth now likewise lead me to be of the same mind; that no Bishop, Dean, or Chapter, ought to Lease out the Lands and Revenues of the Church, for any longer Term than 21. years; For if they could not Lease them for three Lives, though set to the utmost value, without a great deal of wrong and prejudice to their Suc­cessors, as this Blessed and most Pious King, did most rightly conceive, then certainly, they might not Set and Lease those Lands for a 100. shillings, that were well worth a 100 pounds per annum, and that for a 100. or a 1000. years, without much more wrong and prejudice done unto their Suc­cessors, and a very ill example of covetousness and injustice unto all others.

2. The other sort of sacrilegious persons that do commit this horrible 2. The lay sa­crilegious per­sons: and why. sin, and yet shelter themselves under the shadow of Law, are those lay Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen, that have received these Ecclesiastical Rights and Revenues, from the former sacrilegious persons, and these think themselves most innocent, because they have both Law to countenance them, and the Church-men to confirm them in what they do: Yet you know, that, if the Thief which stealeth the goods, cannot be freed, the Receiver of those stolen goods cannot be justified. But I shall, by Gods help, hereafter more fully shew the Sacriledge of these men, that have so unjustly received these goods and possessions of the Church from those that were far more unjust than themselves, and are therefore like Simeon and Levi, brethren i [...] this evil, and so liable to the like punishment.

CHAP. IV.

SEcondly, for the other sort of Thieves and Sacrilegious persons, that 2. The sacrile­gious persons contrary to all Law, of two kinds. rob the Church of God, without any the least pretence of Right or Law, but apparently contrary to the Law both of God and man; I find them to be of two special kinds:

That is,

• 1. Impious Patrons, whether Clergy or Laity, that do sell the Ecclesiastical Dignities, or any wayes sinisterly bestow them.
• 2. Ʋnjust Parishioners, that do fraudulently detain, or most maliciously deny the Tythes, and other just Duties of the Church.

1. In former times, Patrons were appointed to be, as their names im­port, 1. Patrons. Fathers and Guardians unto the Church of Christ; to see good men and able schollers placed and planted in all Parishes, to teach the people of Impious Pa­trons, to whom likened. God; and so they were, as the Ecclesiastical Stories do record unto us: But now, such is the corruption of our times, that our Patrons, for the most part, I fear, cannot be said to be, like Augustus Caesar, that found Rome a City of Bricks, and left it of Marble, to cause their Parishes to be supplied 1 Reg. 14. 27. with better & abler men than they were. But they are rather like Rehobo [...]m, the son of Solomon, that found in the Temple of God, Shields of Gold, but left in it Shields of Brasse: So do many Patrons, present men worse and worse; What they do. for when any golden-mouthed Chrysostome is banished, or any learned A [...] ­gustine is dead, or pious Bernard removed, they will presently name Priests [Page 22] of Brasse, and brazen-faced Priests unto the Churches, that deserve no better than Brasse for their Ministery, and the G [...]ld they will reserve for themselves. And Balaams asse, if he can bu [...] speak, and come laden with Numbers 22. Coin, shall be preferred: And, as the Poet saith,

Though Homer comes to seek the Place that shall be void, if he comes with nothing to give, he shall get nothing of them. For, who knows not the pra­ctice of our times to be, for the Priest, that seeks the Living, either to pay The usual pra­ctice in these times: some good sum of money for it, or to compound for the greater, o [...] some part of the Tythes, or to marry either kinswoman or servant, before the poor Clerk, or rather simple Clerk, can be presented to any Church.

The Aegyptians took away the straw from the Israelites, and yet requi­red Exod. 5. 11. of them, the whole tale of Bricks as formerly; which was a hard task, and a great tyranny: But these Patrons take away the Corn, and leave for the poor Priests nothing but the straw. They will have all the Gleab­lands, and the Priests shall glean for their maintenance; and these Grand Masters commonly must have the greater Tythes, or at least some part or parcel thereof, and the Priest shall have but Reliquias Dana [...]m atque im­mitis Virgil. Aeneid. l. 2. Achillis, what these Canker▪ worms shall leave them, a cloud for Juno, and a shadow instead of a Water-Nymph. And yet they must exceed in the tale of their Bricks, and bring far more than their Pred [...]cessors brought, they must study more, and preach oftner, than ever was done in former times; which is a hard case, and yet as true a case as any that you shall find in all Sir Edward Cook's Reports.

But though, like Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that erected an Altar a­gainst the Altar of God, and made Priests, to serve at that Altar, of the lowest, the meanest, and basest of the people, that the greatest gain might redound into his own hands, because none buyes deerer, and gives larger, than the greater dunse: So our Patrons of Ecclesiastical preferments, in many, I dare not say in most places, are resolved to sell their Churches, as Judas sold his Christ, and his Saviour, to them that will give most for them; yet because, as S. Gregory saith, Partem habebit cum Simone, qui contra Simo­naicos, Gregor. & ha­b [...]tur 1. q. 1. Quisquis. pro officii sui loco vehementer non exarserit: He shall have his por­tion with Simon Magus, the Proto-Simonist, the first unlawful buyer of holy graces, which, according to his place, doth not do his best to suppresse the sin of Simonie, that is, the buying and selling of spiritual graces and pro­motions; I will a little unfold the heynousness of this sin, that, as many of them, I fear, are settled in their resolutions, to continue the doing of it, so they may the better know hereby, what they do, and what a horrible sin they do commit, to the great dishonour of God, and the damage of the Church of Christ.

And I say, that the Pope is the prime and principal father of this Bastard­brood, Simonie usual­ly practised in Rome, and by former Popes. and that nothing was wont to be rifer at Rome than this sin of Si­monie, which did therefore seem the lesse sinful, because it was acted by the more powerful Patron. And though we read it in their own Decrees, that, Tolerabilior est Macedonii haeresis, qui [...]sserit Spiritum Sanctum esse ser­vum patris & filii, quàm haec Symonaica pactio; quia isti faciunt Spiritum Sanctum servum suum: ut ait Terasius, Patriarcha Constantinopolitanus: This selling of Church-Livings is more intolerable than the heresie of Macedo­nius, who said, That the Holy Ghost was the servant of the Father and of the Son, because they make the Holy Ghost to become their servant, as Bern. in Con­vers▪ Pauli, Ser­m [...]ne 1. Terasius saith to Pope Adrian. Yet S. Bernard, that saw much, but not all, saith, Sacrigradus dati sunt in occasionem turpis lucri, & quaestum aesti­mant [Page 23] pietatem, Holy Orders are now become the occasion of filthy lucre, and gain is counted godliness: And this Simonie is Sacriledge indeed; and not only Musculus citeth these Verses that were made of Pope Musculus in cap. 6. Johan. Alexander,

but Durandus also saith, That Simonie doth so reign in the Church of Rome, Durand. de mo▪ do celebrandi C [...]ncilii. Extra de officio judicis delegati ex parte N. in Ol [...]ss [...]. as if it were no sin at all:

And their Canonists, as Bartolus, Felinus, Theodoricus, and some others of the Pope's parasites, are so impudent as to averr, that the selling of these things, and taking monie for Ecclesiastical promotions, can be neither Sacriledge nor Simonie in the Pope, because he is the Lord of them all, and accounteth them all his own.

But since we have bidden Adieu to him and his corruptions; his Simonie and his Sacriledge, blessed be God for it, doth not so much prejudice us: and therefore, letting him to do what he will with his own, and either to stand or fall to his own Master; I will address my self to shew the manifold evils and wickednesse of our own Sacrilegious and Simonaical P [...]trons, that sell those Benefices, which they should freely bestow. And I say,

1. That this buying and selling of Church-goods (for both these acts are The selling of Ecclesiastical-Livings, a­gainst all Laws. 1. Of Moses: Gen. 47. 22. relatives, and to be put in the same predicament, when as nothing is sold that is not bought, & è contra) is a thing contrary to all Laws, and to the judgement of all good men; for,

1. The Laws of Moses provided so liberally for the Priests and Levites, that the buying and selling of Priests places was never known nor heard of among the Jews, until Jeroboam's time; who, as he sold them, so he sold himself to do evil, and to commit wickedness.

2. Pharaoh was so religious, that when in the great Dearth, all the land 2. Of the Gen­tiles. of Aegypt was sold, the Priests had such a portion of Corn allotted them, that they needed not to sell one foot of their land; and therefore I doubt not but Pharaoh will rise in judgement against all those that take away the lands of the Priests, as our Gentlemen, and Souldiers strive to do, or do sell the Spiritual promotions unto the Priests, as our Simonaical Pa­trons do.

3. The Law of Grace saith, Freely have you received, that is, all the 3 Of grace. graces and gifts of God, therefore, freely give, especially what you give Math. 10. 8. to God, and for the Service of God, and sell it not.

4. The Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws forbid nothing more, and with 4. Of the Civil and Canon-Law. greater care, than the buying and selling of Spiritual Offices: And the ancient Fathers, learned Schoolmen, and all the later Classes of Casuists, Jesuites, and of our zealous purest Protestant Writers, together with the wisest Princes and Statesmen, that have established many Statute-Laws a­gainst this sin, are all infinitely deceived, if this buying and selling of Ec­clesiastical preferments, be not infinitely prejudicial to the Church of God, and therefore a most heynous and a horrible sin against the Law of God.

2. I say, that this buying and selling of Church-Livings, will be the di­minution 2. This selling and buying of Church-Li­vings will be the decay of Learning and Religion. of all Learning, and the lessening of the number of Learned men: for when the world seeth, that after a man hath spent his time, first in School, where he suffereth a great deal of sorrows, and thinks no creature more miserable than himself, when he seeth all others free, and himself only (as he supposeth) bound under the rod; then in the Ʋniver­sity, where most of the Schollers are, as Phalaris saith to Leon­tides, [Page 24] [...], needy of all things but of hunger and How difficult it is to become a Scholar. fear; or else, if they escape these rocks, the better part, do, with conti­nuall watching and studying wear their bodies, and tyre their spirits, and spend all the means they can procure from their friends for many years to­gether, and in the end, after all this, cannot get a poor Parsonage or Vica­rage, unless they pay for the lease of their wearied and almost worn out life, to the hazarding of their soules, and all other Preferments when the truth of their buying is made known; What Fathers will be so improvident; I had almost said, so irreligious, I may truly say, so unworldly wise, or so lit­tle prudent in managing of their estates, as to cast away their means and their sons upon such sourges? I think I may say with the Poet,

A beggars brat, knowing these inconveniencies, would scarce accept these Offices, and discharge those duties they do owe, upon these condi­tions.

But you will say, that we must not, and ought not, to respect our own Obj. gain, and look after our own profit; but, as the Apostles and servants of Christ, our chiefest care should be for the peoples good; because our reward shall be great in Heaven.

I answer, that as in the Common-wealth, we owe our selves and our ser­vice Sol. wholly unto our Prince, and to our Countrey; yet, some convenient reward will make us the more willing to serve. So in the Church of God; though I must preach willingly, and wo [...] me, being called to that office▪ if I preach not so, and discharge all other Priestly offices cheerfully, rather for the gain of Souls then for any other the greatest gain in the World; yet, necessary maintenance will inable me, or any other, to do my duty the more cheerfully, and with the more incouragement: no man can deny the same; and our Saviour tels us, The workman is worthy of his hire: and there­fore, Luk. 10. 17. Matth. 10. 10. as the Ministers of Christ do give unto you spirituall things, so reason sheweth, what the Apostle setteth down, that you should give unto them, and not sell unto them, these temporall things: that so not only we which are already entred into this calling, may discharge our duties the more The reward of learning, is the best means to increase, and to continue learning. joyfully; but also others, which as yet are not of this calling, may, by the reward of learning, be induced to undertake the Ministry, that otherwise is despicable enough in the world, the more willingly; because, as Symma­chus saith, Virtus aemula alitur exemplo honoris alieni; virtue is cherished, and set forward, with the example and sight of other mens honour; as Alci­biades, with the glory and honour given to Miltiades, was spurred for­ward to the like atchievements, that he might attain unto the like glory; whereas otherwise, as it is a Maxime in warlike Affairs that exprobrata mi­litia Take away the reward, and learning pe­risheth. creditur, quae irremunerata transitur; that service is thought base, and that warfare not worth the following, which is unworthy of any reward; so it is true in Academical sciences and all other Arts whatsoever, that Inhonorata virtus languescit, Virtue despised and left unrewarded will soon faint and languish; and all good Arts, even of themselves without pres­sure, will speedily decay; which was the only course, and the most spite­full, that Julian took, to root out Christianity, to take away the mainte­nance of the Ministers; for he knew that, as both Seneca and Tacitus saith, Sublatis studiorum praemiis, ipsa studia pereunt.

3. I say that this buying and selling of spiritual promotions in the Church 3. The buying and selling of Church li­vings, will be the decay of all hospitality. of God, will be, (as it is indeed, and hath been of a long time, ever since the birth of this bastard brat) the extirpation of all hospitality among the Clergy: The Apostle tells us that a Bishop should be given to hospitality, and [Page 25] Saint Augustine to inforce this duty, the sooner to be observed; saith, Foe­cundus Aug. de verbis Domin [...] sermone. 25. est ager pauperum, citò reddit dominantibus fructum. Dei est pro par­vis magna pensare: the field of the poor is very profitable, and yieldeth his fruit very quickly, and that plentifully, because it is the property of God, How our good works do fur­ther Faith in others. to render great things to us, for the small things that we give to him. And Saint Gregory saith, Egentis mentem doctrinae sermo non penetrat, si hunc (vel illum sermonem) apud ejus animum manus m [...]sericordiae non commendat: the Word of God Preached doth not pi [...]rce the heart of a needy man, unless If they take a­way [...]ur lands, and sell our livings, how can we relieve the poor? the hand of mercy doth commend that Word and reach it home unto him; which is a very excellent, true, and most worthy saying; worthy, to be re­membred, and to be practised of all Divines: And yet now, in these times, and amongst us, that, I fear, is true, which the poor complain of; That there is but small hospitality among the Clergy.

But they ought to consider, what the Philosopher saith, Nihil dat quod non habet, he that hath but scarce enough to maintain himself, can spare but very little to relieve others: and therefore, seeing a Minister must not get his living by any other means, then by the means of his Ministry; and that, by his calling to be a Minister, and all his pains and diligence in his cal­ling, he can get no means, unless he buyes his living; and when he buyes it, he is commonly set so far in debt, that, in haste, he shall not be able to re­cover The poor are not able, to relieve the poor. himself out of his creditors books; How is it possible that a Minister, Parson or Vicar, should be able to be hospitable unto others, when, as the Popish Priests were wont to say dirge's for their dinners; So these poor Preachers must read Lectures for their maintenance; which is many times, as I have seen it, in some places, made up out of the poor mens box; and the Lecturer must preach placentia, lest his voluntary benefactors, if he be too bold in their reproofs, should substract the pittance of their con­tribution. A most lamentable thing, that a Preacher of Gods Word, that ought freely to speak the truth, must be thus fortered, for want of means; and that they, which should have plenty that they might be inabled to re­lieve Ministers in some places, and at some times relieved out of the poor mens box. lieve the poor, should be brought to that scantling and penury, as to be for­ced to be relieved themselves, out of the portion of the poor: O consider this, all ye Sacrilegious patrons, that sell your livings, and forget God, lest he remember you, and tear you to pieces, while there is none to help you.

4. If the observation of precedent things may presage any future thing, 4. The buying and selling of Church li­vings, is the presage of some great evil unto the Church. I say that this buying and selling of Church livings doth portend and fore­signify some great and imminent evil, both to the Church and state; for Socrates in his Eccless. Hist. tels us, that when some wicked Souldiers had prophaned the Church, and had Sacrilegiously robbed her Priests; as now our souldiers strive and study how to do the like: one standing by, said [...]: This abuse of Gods house fore-sheweth no good thing to come: and Socrates saith, he was not deceived, because that in a very short time after, it happened according as he feared; and Alphon­sus de castro saith, as he is cited by the Bishop of Oxford, that the flourish­ing Churches of Greece and Armenia were forsaken of God, and had their Candle-sticks that upheld the light of the Gospel removed, when they began to maintain, that it was lawfull to buy and sell the lands, goods, and reve­nues of the Church.

And therefore I advise and wish all that hunger and thirst after the Church- lands, houses, and goods, and all covetous Patrons to take heed of this sin, of buying and selling what belongs unto the Church; or to take a­way the lands or houses of the Church, which [...]s a sin, so da [...]rous to them­selves, so prejudic [...]all to the Church, and so [...]minous to the Common-wealth: And let them remember what I said before, that if Pharaoh, in the time of [Page 26] that great famine which was in Aegypt, made such provision for the Priests, Gen. 47. that although all the other his subjects were constrained to sell their lands for sustenance; yet, the lands of the Priests were not sold, neither had any of them any need to sell them: and if Popish Priests that either preach­ed not at all, or preached their own traditions, or some fabulous narrati­ons and fictions out of their legends, were so ri [...]hly kept, and still are, in France, Spaine, and Italy, on Saint Peters patrimony; Why should they deal so hardly and so niggardly with the Ministers of the Gospel, that do sincerely Preach the truth of Jesus Christ unto their people, as to sell unto them or take away from them that little, which is left and is most due un­to them.

Or if all this will not serve to withdraw them from this sin, let them take heed of the Prophets woe, that crieth out against all such dealers, saying Vae accumulanti non sua: Woe be to him that heapeth together those Hab. 2. 6. things that are none of his own; and especially those things, that are the Churches goods; for he shall find that this gain doth ever bring a rod at its back. When as Zophar saith, God shall cause him to vomit up that, which he hath devoured, and shall cast them out of his belly; and render vengeance to Job. 20. 15. him, for the detriment and injury, that he hath done to his Church and servants.

And this vengeance, Saint Augustine noteth to be more grievous than the The punish­ment of Sacri­lodge greater then the pu­nishment of Idolatry. Exod. 20. 2 Reg. 5. 27. punishment of Idolatry: for whereas God threateneth to punish Idola­ters but to the third and fourth Generation; we find that the Sacriledge of Jeroboam, in selling the Priests Office, provoked God to root out his house, and all his posterity from off the earth; and the simony of Gehezi was pu­nished with such a Leprosy, as stuck both upon himself, and upon all his whole seed for ever.

And no marvell that this sin of Sacriledge should be so odious unto God, Why Sacri­ledge is so odi­ous to God, and so preju­diciall and in­festuous to man. and so infestuous and pernitious unto man; because that, although other sins, as Idolatry, Murder, Adultery, Theft, and the like, may be said to be but, as it were, private and particular sins, that infect none, or but few, besides the doers of them; yet, this sin of Sacriledge is a publick and a far­spreading sin, not only against some particular persons, but against a mul­titude of men and against the whole body of Religion, when by defrauding and taking away the maintenance of the Ministers, the whole Ministry of Gods service is impaired, and suffered, nay caused, to be neglected and de­cayed; whereby not only Idolatry, and false worship hath an open gap, and How Sacri­ledge bringeth forth Atheism, Idolatry and all Wicked­ness. a broad way of entrance into Gods Church, but also Atheism; and no wor­ship of God, but all corruption and lewdness must be the chiefest fruit that can grow upon this accursed tree of Sacriledge; when either the Souldiers or any others, of the Lords or Gentry, take the lands and houses of God in­to their possessions, or the covetous Patrons do sell and make Merchandize of any Ecclesiastical preferment.

2. As the irreligious Patrons do offend in selling the Ministers living, 2. The Sacri­ledge of the people. that he should freely bestow upon him; so the Parishioners are as ready and as greedy to detain and keep back that right, which is due to the Priest by Gods law, and the Minister hath also bought from his Patron, as the Pa­tron was to sell what he should give; And it is strange to think, how witty they are to go to Hell, if God be not the more mercifull unto them, to hold them from it! What shifts and tricks they have to hold back their hands from paying their Tythes; and how loath they are to set out their Tythes and think all that lost that is laid out for the Priest.

But alas, they should know, that herein they deceive not us alone that are the Priests; but their own souls also, that are more damnified by this their Sacriledge, then the Priests can be by the loss of their Tythes; be­cause [Page 27] that hereby they rob not men, but God himself; for that the Priests are but the Lords Receivers and his Rent▪ gatherers, of that small acknow­ledgment, The Ministers are Gods Rent gatherers. which he requires from us, his Tenants at will for all the great things he gives to us, to be repaid to him again, as the testimony of our du­ty and thankfulness, and the stipend that he hath allotted to them, that are to serve him at his Altar; And therefore, when the Israelites gave unto their Levites, as our people in many places do give unto their Preachers, the blind, the lame, and the maymed, the leanest Lamb and the leightest Sheave, the Lord complaineth, that they robbed and spoiled him in Tythes and Offer­ings; Mal. 3. 8, 10. Lev. 27. 30. because the Lord saith directly, that all the Tythe of the Land, is the Lords: and all that, is Holy unto the Lord.

But seeing that this Sacrilegious Age, hath produced and brought forth tot manus auferendi, so many hands to take away the rights of the Church, and so many tongues to speak against, and adversaries to oppose the truth of the Doctrine of Tythes, and to take away the Lands, Houses, and Pos­sessions of the Church:

I shall leave it to be more fully handled towards the latter end of this discourse and Declaration against Sacriledge.

CHAP. V.

IF you look into the 2 of Sam. 7. 1, 2. verses, you shall find it thus written.

Alterward, When the King sate in his House, and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies: The King said unto Nathan the Prophet, Behold, now I dwell in a house of Cedar trees, and the Ark of God remaineth in the Curtains: and so forth.

For the better understanding of which words, you may observe that the sum of this whole Chapter is 3. fold, and containeth these 3. parts.

• 1. Davids deliberation.
  The summ of the Chapter 3. fold.
• 2. Nathans replication.
• 3. Davids gratulation.

1. The Deliberation is about an Oratory and Temple, or House to 1. The Delibe­ration. be Erected and Dedicated to God, for his servants to meet in, to worship him, and this is delivered unto us in the two first verses here set down.

2. The Replication of the Prophet is two fold.

• 1. Affirmative, and erronious or mistaken, vers. 3.
  2. The Repli­cation.
• 2. Negative, and right; from the 3. vers. to the 18.
• 3. The gratulation is in an humble acknowledgement, and a grateful re­membrance
  3. The Gratu­lation.
  of the fore-passed benefits of God, with an earnest, and hearty prayer, put up to God for the continuance of his favour unto him, from the 18. verse, to the end of the Chapter.

And I shall here treat of no more than of the deliberation, or the Pro­phets consideration, what he intended to do; touching which, we are to observe these three things:

• 1. The time, which hath a twofold manifestation of it,
  • 1. When he sate in his house.
    The 3. things observable in the delibera­tion.
  • 2. When he was safe from his enemies.
• 2. The Persons deliberating, and they are 2.
  • 1. David, the King.
  • 2. Nathan, the Pro­phet.
• 3. The matter deliberated, and considered of, betwixt the Prince and the Prophet; and that was, the meanness and baseness of the then House of God; and therefore he would be at the cost and charges to make it beautiful, and to erect him an House befitting the Majesty and greatness of God.

And this his good intention he justifieth and confirmeth, the same to be both honest and good, by the consequent of Congruity, that it was fit it should be so, in respect of a double comparison.

• 1. Of himself with God.
• 2. Of his Court with God's Ark.

1. I that am but a poor creature, have an house to dwell in, and God 1. Reason. that is the Creator of all the World, hath not an House to put his Ark in and for his servants to meet in, to hear his Laws, and to do him service.

2. My Court is stately covered over with Cedars, but the Ark of God 2. Reason. is but very meanly and basely covered over with a Canopie of skins, to shel­ter it from the wind and the weather.

And therefore, conceiving this to be very preposterous, and a far unbe­seeming thing, for him to be better provided for, than his God, he confer­reth with the Prophet, and tells him, he intends to rectifie this obliquity, and to build God an House, more agreeable to his Majesty. These are the parts and parcels of the Kings deliberation and conference with the Pro­phet and his Bishop Nathan. And

1. For the time; It is said, when the King sate in his house, and the Lord had 1 The time of this delibera­tion. How Sitting & Standing are commonly in­terpreted. Ezech. 3. 24. 1 Cor. 10. 12. 2 Cor. [...] 24. Ephes. 6. 14. 1 Pet. 5. 12. Ps. 135. 1, 2. Ps. 122. 2. 2 Reg. 3. 14. given him rest round about, from all his enemies. So you see,

1. It was when the King sate in his house; and these relative words sit­ting and standing, are noted by Divines to have some difference of sense and acceptation: As, standing being commonly taken in good part, and sitting in the evil and worser sense: as in these places, where standing is well spoken of, The Spirit entred into me and set me upon my feet; and he that thinketh he standeth, let him take heed lest he fall; and stand in the Lord as dear children; and by faith ye stand; and, stand having your loynes girt about with truth; and, this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand; and, praise the Lord, all ye his servants, ye that stand in the courts of the Lords House; and, our feet shall stand in thy gates, O Hier [...]salem; and, the Lord of Hosts liveth, before whom I stand. In all which quotations, and the like, the word standing, hath reference unto good, and is taken in the better sense, and so to be interpreted. And in these places, and the like, where the name of sitting runneth into obloquie, and is attributed to iniquity: Iniquity sitteth on a talent of lead; and, Princes sit and speak against me; Zach: 5. 7. Ps. 119. Ps. 1. and Blessed is the man that hath not sate in the seat of the scornful; and the ungodly person sitteth lurking in the theevish corners of the streets; and so in may other places, it is interpreted in the worse sense.

But here the word, sate in his house, is of a milder meaning, and of indif­ferent How the word sate, is here ta­ken. acceptation, and rather to be interpreted in the better sense, as be­tokening the government of the King: for so [ the King sate in his house] sig­nifieth, [Page 29] that he sate in his Seat of Government; and this sense hath been ancient and obvious in our reading, as, where the Poet saith,

King Aeolus sitteth in his high Tower, and manageth his State-matters; and in the Germane speech, they say, that to sit, signifieth to reign: as the Emperour sate, that is, reigned so many years. And this is the moderne meaning of this phrase even amongst us; for when we would shew, how long any one hath exercised the Office, and discharged the Place of a Bi­shop, Judge, or Prefect amongst us, we are wont to say, he sate in that place so long. And to sit, commonly signifieth to be in rest and quiet; and is opposite to, affairs and businesse: As where it is said, Shall your bre­thren go to battle, and you sit still? And, where the Poet saith,

Let the Latines sit still and look on. And in both these senses, King David may be said to sit in his house, without any great matter in which sense we understand the word; though I rather take it in the later way, because, that

2. The next adjunct of the time is, when the Lord had given him rest 2. When was the time, that David had rest from all his e­nemies. from all his enemies: for this varieth little or nothing from the former, when he sate in his house: And therefore we may very well compose them, and confound them together, and put them to signifie the same thing.

But about this rest that is here spoken of, the Expositors cannot all a­gree, when it was: whilest they do consider the many Battels that he fought after this conference that he had with Nathan; and therefore, though some take it for the peace he had at this present time, yet others, of a quicker sight, do assign it after the second Victory he had against the Phi­listines, when he was such an hammer, so terrible to all the neighbour-Na­tions, as that the very name of David and his doings, made them afraid, and glad to sue unto him for peace, and to take bands of resolution with themselves, to be of good behaviour towards him, and never to provoke him any more. And of this we read in 1 Chron. 14. 11. when the Philistines came up to Baal-Perazim, and David smote them, and said, God hath bro­ken in upon mine enemies by mine hand, like the breaking forth of waters; and afterward when they spread themselves abroad in the valley, and David 1 Chron. 14. v. 1 [...], 17. smote them from Gibeon even to Gazer, and the fame of David went out into all Lands, and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all Nations.

2. For the persons, that are here conferring together, they are said to be 2. The persons deliberating and conferring together. David and Nathan, the King, and the Prophet; two great Persons, and high Offices, that formerly were contained in one Person, as Melchisedech was the Priest of the M [...]st High GOD, and King of Salem. And as the Poet saith, Virgil. l. 3.

And when God divided and distributed these several Offices to several per­sons, he conferred them upon two brothers, that is, Moses and Aaron; that so the King and the Priest might live and love one another like brethren, as I have more amply shewed in my Treatise of The Grand Rebellion. And so King David here dischargeth that his duty accordingly: And so like­wise, not only the Heathen Kings, but also the Jewish Kings, the Kings of [Page 30] Israel, and all good Christian Kings disdained not the friendly familiarity and The greatest Kings and Princes were most familiar with the Priests Orators, and Philosophers. conference with their Bishops and Priests, especially when they consult and deliberate of Religion, or any point that concerns the Worship and Service of God. For as King Croesus conferred with Solon the Philosopher: and Alexander King of Macedon consulted often with Aristotle, and sometimes with Diogenes the Cynick: and King Pyrrhus with his dear friend Cineas: So Pharaoh King of Egypt called and consulted with his Priests, that were the Magicians, and deemed the wise men of Egypt, when Moses came to treat of God's Service. And though Moses appointed 70▪ men of the choicest, gravest, and wisest men, that could be found of all the Elders of Israel to be the Sanhedrim, and as it were a standing Parliament to end all controversies, and all the civil affairs of the Kingdom; Yet, when the Case of Religion came in question, and the differences about God's Worship came to be decided, neither the Kings of Israel, nor the Kings of Juda, to whom the principal care and custody of God's Laws and Service was commit­ted, did ever commend the same unto the Sanhedrim to be concluded and setled. But, as King David here calleth and consulteth with Nathan the Prophet, about the building of God's House; so when Religion was cor­rupted, and the Service of the True God neglected, in the time of King Ahab, he calleth not the Sanhedrim to rectifie and redress the same; but he leaves the same to be determined and adjudged, betwixt the Priests of Baal, and Elias the true Prophet of the Lord; And so did King Asa, Je­hosaphat, 1 Reg. 18. 17, 18. 19, 20. 2 Chron. 15. 2. & 8, &c. M [...]t [...]. 2. 4. and Ezechias, consulted not with their lay▪ Lords, or the Sanhe­drim, but with Azariah the son of Oded the Prophet, and with Esay, and the rest of God's Prophets. Nay, when the Wise men came to inquire for Christ; Herod, that sought to destroy Him, and his Religion, inquireth not of any, but of the Chief Priests and Scribes, Where Christ sh [...]uld be born. And so all the Wise and Christian Emperours, Constantine, Theodosius, Justini­an, and the rest, as you may find it in B [...]sebius, Socrates, Zozomen, and other Ecclesiastical Historians, had always some special Bishops, with whom they conferred and consulted about matters of Religion; as Charles the Fifth did with Cassander; and Henry the Eighth with Bishop Crammer. For they conceived that their Crowns had the greater Lustre when it was in conjunction with the Miter: And therefore in no great Councel was the Man of God ever baulked; but, that they might be sure to serve God be­fore themselves, and be assured, that while the Church prospered, the Bi­shops directed, and they had God and his Messengers amongst them, all would go right and be safe; and therefore in all, or most Courts of Con­science, where the Law reached not, they thought none so fit as these men of conscience, to decide all differences.

Neither could I ever find, that the Church of God was so much pestered with miseries, and poisoned with Errors, Heresies, and Sects, or Divisions, until the lay Lords and Gentlemen, like the Long Parliament, neglected their proper Offices, to look into the affairs of the Common-wealth, and to see Justice and Judgement truly executed among the people, and be­gan, immittere falcem in alienam messem, to thrust their sickles into other mens harvest, and to intermeddle with that, which concerns them not; as Esay 1. 12. The Church of God never be­came more mi­serable, then when the lay­people under­took to con­clude and de­termine points of Religion. to chop and change Articles of Religion, and to set down and compose points of faith, when the Lord saith, Quis requisivit haec? Who hath requi­red these things at your hands? It is your duty to come into the Temple, and to perform the service, that David and Nathan, the King and the Bishops shall prescribe unto you; and to confirm those Articles of Reli­gion, and cause them in all things to be observed, as the Parliament did in Queen Elizabeth's dayes, the 39. Articles of our Religion, when they are, as those were, setled and concluded by the Bishops, and the rest of the Clergy [Page 31] in their Convocation: for the Lord tells us plainly, That the Priests lips should keep knowledge, and they, (that is, the people, be they what, and whom you will, San [...]edrim of the Jews, or Parliament of any other Na­tion) should seek the Law, that is, the Law of God, at his mouth; because he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts, that is, to declare his will, and to ex­pound his Laws unto the people.

But what saith the Lord in this Case when the people, be they what you will, shall usurpe the Priests Office, and begin to make new Orders and Ordinances, for the Service of God, that never required such things at their hands? He tells them plainly, You are departed out of the way, and you have caused many to stumble at the Law, that is, by your false glosses, and injoyned observations thereof; and you have corrupted the Covenant of Levi, saith the Lord of Hosts; that is, you have wronged, and quite thrown out, the Bishops and Priests from their Offices, which is, to consult with the King to see God rightly worshipped. And therefore, saith the Lord, I have Malach. 2. 7, 8, 9. also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as you have not kept my wayes, but have been partial in the Law, that is, by making Religion and my Service, like a nose of wax, to turn which way you please, when as every one should do the duties that belong unto him; Curabit prae­lia Conon.

CHAP. VI.

THirdly, having seen the times, and the persons, that consulted and con­ferred 3. The matter about which they consulted. together, we are now to consider the fruits, and effects that this quiet sitting at rest, and peaceable times, wrought in David, and what was the matter, that these two grave and great Persons do so seriously deli­berate What peace & prosperity usu­ally produce. and consult about; And most commonly we find, that rest and peace have been the bane, and surfeit of the mind, to puff it up with pride; and prosperity hath often choaked piety, and plenty hath made Religion to pine away, and to be cast upon a bed of security, as Jezabel was cast upon a bed of fornication. For so Moses saith of the Israelites, Dilectus meus impin­guatus recalcitravit; My beloved, fed, fatted, and inlarged, kicked with Deut. 32. 15. their heels; or, Jesuru [...] waxed fat and kicked, and then he forsook God that made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation. And as the Poet saith,

Our hearts do swell, and our minds grow luxurious and riotous, when our affairs do prosper, and all things succeed as our hearts desire, and have rest Our peace and plenty made us wanton; and our wanton­ness brought, our wars upon us. and peace, as now David had, round about us. And so indeed it fell out with our selves in these Kingdoms now of late; our peace and our plenty, hath undone us, by making us too wanton, to rebell against our King, to provoke our God to scourge us for that our Wantonness and Rebellion. And therefore S. Augustine saith most truly, Magnae virtutis est cum faelici­tate [Page 32] luctari, ne illiciat, ne corrumpat, ne ipsa subvertat foelicitas; it is a point of great virtue, to strive with felicity; lest, it inticeth us, corrupteth us, and overthroweth us; and so it is a great felicity and happiness, not to be overcome with felicity, or, not to be undone with prosperity; as many Men, Towns, and Kingdoms have been many times: for as the said Poet saith,

But sitting and jocond she was destroyed. And so it is with many, Quam facile cadunt splendi­dae fortuna. How king Da­vids peace and plenty increa­sed his Piety. [...]; Their fair fortunes makes them to fall.

But it was not thus now with King David; for his Rest begat Religion in him; and his peace, plenty, and prosperity increased his Piety: and as he delighteth to recount Gods benefits, so he considereth how he may show his thankfulness for them; and therefore he thus museth and meditateth on the matter.

God hath given me a Kingdom, and a Royall stately House; built of Ce­dars The summ and substance of Davids delibe­ration. in that Kingdom. Therefore I will build an House for him, and he hath given me rest round about; therefore I will prepare a place for his Ark, which he ordained to be the sign and symbole of his presence; and which hitherto hath had no resting place, but many a sad and wearisome perambu­lations, that now at last it may rest and be no more forced to be transported and carried from place to place. For though, Enter, praesenter, Deus est, & ubi (que) potenter, God himself, hath an ubiquity of presence, being essentially full, and filling all places, Supra coelos non elatus, & subter terram non depressus; non exclusus, nec circumscriptus; yet because his gratious and his powerfull presence is promised to be, and to be shewed and extended in a speciall 2 Chron. 6. 41. manner in some places more, and rather, then in other places, and that place specially is, where his Ark resideth, and which is called the Ark of his Exod. 30. 26: strength, and the Ark of his Covenant, and the Ark of the Testimony: be­cause he Covenanted and promised by the tables of that Covenant, and the Hebr. 9. 4. other symbols of his presence, that were kept in that Ark, to be present and assistant, and most powerfully to bless, and protect, all those that kept the Covenant, and observed those Testimonies that were preserved in that Ark; therefore saith David, In requital of Gods favours shewed unto me, I will build a House for Gods Ark; that so, the tables of the Covenant, betwixt God and his people, and the Manna, and the rod of Aaron, which were to be kept in the Ark, might be the more safely preserved, and rest in one place without any more wandering, and the people and servants of God which are obliged and commanded to come to serve God, and to bring their of­ferings and oblations to offer unto God before the Ark where it should be, might be the more certain of the place of its residence, and might with the more conveniency, and in a far better manner, perform their duties, and dis­charge their service unto God; then while the Ark wandered from place to place. And this was the result and summ of Davids deliberation, and conference with the Prophet Nathan.

And it is no wounder, that King David was so Religious, and so punctual, The excellency of Religion, which is the preserver of all happiness. in all particulars appertaining to Religion and the service of God; because Religion, as one truly saith, is, as the Poles of the World, the Arctick and Antarctick, or that Mount Atlas, which (the Poets say) holds up Heaven [Page 33] for it stands on earth, and it reacheth to God in Heaven, and it is that which poyseth all Societies, and all states here below; for, without the faith and belief of Gods Providence, to oversee our actions, and then to reckon for our transgressions, and to punish the delinquents, might, craft, and fals­hood would sway in the World alike with men, as it is with the Beasts of the field, and the Fishes of the Sea; and the Conscience of good and evil would be all one: and Religion, is that which enobleth the noblest man, erects his affections, and estates him in a state of happiness, far above nature; and, in a word, this procures all blessings to light upon us. So that whether you aime at the spiritual, true, and eternal felicity, or the civill-Weale and temporall happiness only; yet, Religion is, and ought, mainly to be magnified and preserved; and therfore the King did most wisely and Reli­giously call the Prophet, to consult about the building of an House for the Ark, and for the service of God. What Davids example should teach all other Princes.

And this practice of King David is a pattern and a looking-glass for all Kings and Princes, whereby they may see, how to spend the times of peace and prosperity to their best profit and advantage; and that is,

1. Not to spend their whole time, either in idleness, or vain pastimes, 1. Lesson. because, as Hesiod saith, Illi pariter indignantur dii & homines, quisquis otio­sus est; both the gods and men detest him that is idle, and therefore Christ Matth. 20. 6. demandeth of them that did nothing, Why stand ye here all day idle? and for pastimes and recreations, Ludendi modus retinendus est; a mean or mea­sure, and certain ends and rules, ought to be observed therein.

For so do we read of the Roman Scevola, he used to recreate his spirits, Valer. Max. l. 8. c. 8. after he had wearied himself in the weighty Affairs of the Common­wealth; but, as it is said of Scipio Africanus that he was, Non minus otiosus Not to spend all their time in pleasures. quàm cum otiosus, never less idle then when he was idle; Quia semper in otio de negotio cogitavit; because, that when he had nothing to do, he was stil thinking and considering what he should do, even as King David here When he sate in his house and was at rest, and took his ease, and was quiet from all Wars, he bethinks himself of building Gods House; So should all other Kings and Princes do: to give unto the very times of tranquillity their procer task and share of their Affairs; because, as Homer bringeth in God telling Agamemnon, that

It beseems not a Prince to take a sound sleep all night long, as Alexander Quint. Curt. did on that night, when he was on the next very day to fight with Darius. Which might have lost him the field, had not his fortune been better then Ezech. 2. 9. his sore-sight. For God puts a Scroule into every Prince his hand, sembla­ble to that schedule of Ezechiel, wherein all their charge and duties are set down at large, with this inscription, Gesta illos in sinu; Bear all these alwaies in thy bosome, and let them never depart out of thy mind; and as the Egyptians Hieroglyphic painted, Oculum cum Sceptro, an Eye with the Crown or Scepter [...] to betoken a prudent Prince; so should every King have an eye in his head, as well as a Scepter in his hand, or a Crown upon his head, and to use Vigilance as well as Authority over his people.

And so Augustus Caesar, that found Rome of brick, and left it of Marble, The great care of A [...]g [...]st Caesar for the good of the Common­wealth. is made famous by the Historians for his great and extraordinary care and vigilancy which he alwaies used for the good of his Empire; when as he gave himself no rest, nor suffered any one day to pass over his head, in quo non aliquid legeret, aut scriberet, aut declamaret, but he either read, or [Page 34] writ, or made some speech unto the people; and when he heard of a cer­tain Gentleman of Rome, that was very deeply indebted, and yet slept most securely, without care to pay his debts, and without fear of any danger, he desired that he might buy the bed, whereupon he rested; because the A careless Gentleman. debts that he stood bound for, both to God and to the Common-wealth would never suffer him to sleep so secure, when as it is ars artium the chiefest of all arts, and the heardest of all things, to Rule and Govern an unruly people; so difficult, that the Prophet David compares it to the appeasing of the raging Seas; saying, Thou stillest the rage of the Sea, and the noise of his waves, and the madness of his people; because, as Seneca saith, Nullum morosius ani­mal, nec majori arte tractandum, quàm subtilis homo; There is not any living creature so froward, and so hard to be tamed and ruled, as a suttle and crafty man.

But those Kings and Princes, that think the Common-wealth to be made Reges fatui quibus similes. for them, and not themselves for the Common wealth; and do spend their time, not much better, then that Romam Emperour; who, when he was in his privy Chamber, sported himself in catching flies, and to pull out their eyes with a pin; for which he became so ridiculous, that o [...]tentimes, when any demanded Who was with the Emperour? his servants would answer, ne musca quidem, truely not a flie, they are said to be tanquam simiae in tecto, like Apes on the top of a house, that delight themselves to spoil, and to untile the house. And God made them Kings and appointed them for other ends, and not to destroy his people, as many Tirants do; which we deserved, for being so unthankfull to God, and so undutifull to our King, that was so pious and so gentle, like King David, and so good as the best that ever England had.

2. As King David spent not his time like Domitian in catching of flies, 2. Lesson. That king Da­vids chiefest care was for Religion and to promote the service of God. nor like Heliogabalus in following after his pleasures, but like Scipio and Augustus for the good of his Kingdom; So here you may see the chiefest good he aimed at was to erect an House, and a House of Beauty and Majesty for the Majesty of the God of Heaven; for his thoughts conceived it not a sufficient discharge of his duty, to provide for the peace of his Kingdom, and the happiness of the Civill State, unless he did also take a speciall care for the honor and service of God, and see the works of Piety performed, as well and rather then the duties of equity and civility: for he understood it full well, that God ordained Kings to be, not only Reges murorum, for the preservation and defence of walls and Cities, and the outward prospe­rity of their people; but also Reges sacrorum, to see the holy duties of Reli­gion, and Gods worship duly performed.

And therefore, as God had made him a Monarch over men, and had gi­ven him an House of Cedars, so he was desirous to become the Priest of God, and to build him an House for his service.

And this should be a good lesson for all other Kings and Princes, to imi­tate What all kings and Princes ought to do. this good and godly King in the like sweet harmony of pollicy and pie­ty, and to have a greater care to provide for the Ark of God then for the Kings Court; because Religion is the basis and pillar that must bear up their Kingdoms. And therefore all good Kings ought not only, with Mo­ses, to rescue their people and to set them at liberty from the Egyptian bondage, and out of the hands of Ʋsurping Tyrants, as our gratious King hath now done; or with Sampson to fight for them against the forces of the Philistines; or with Augustus to make their Cities abound with all kind of Judges 15. prosperity; or with Ezechias to set up an exchequer for silver and gold, and pretious stones, and for shields, and store-houses, for to keep Wheat and 2 Chron. 32. 27. Wine, and Oyl, and stables for Horses and all Beasts of service; that is to strengthen their Kingdoms, with Meat, Money, and Ammunition, and all other necessaries both for War and Peace: but they ought also with David [Page 35] to bring home the Ark of the Lord into the House of God, and to set Le­vites 2 Sam. 6 17. to do the service of the Tabernacle; that is, good and godly Ministers 1 Chron. 16. 4. and 37 &c. and Bishops to attend the Church, and to teach the people; and with King Asa to overthrow the Idols and Altars, and all other monuments of Idola­try, and false worship of God; and with Jehu to slaughter all the Priests of 1 Reg. 15. 12. Baal, and to root out all Heretical, Schismatical, and false teachers from the Church of Christ. 2 Reg. 10. 25.

And to make this more apparant and clear, that all good Kings and That all good kings & Prin­ces ought to preserve and to promote Gods true Re­ligion. Princes ought to take care of Religion, and to see that Gods service should be duly exercised within their Dominions; you shall find that, when through the profaneness and negligence of King Saul to discharge his du­ty, and the desidiousness and carelesseness of the Priests and Levites, many abuses crept into the Church, as the Tabernacle was broken and lost, the Ark of God was out of the Temple, out of the proper place of it, and was obscured and hemmed, and, as it were, imprisoned in private houses, so that the people had no publique place of Assembly, to here the law and to offer Sacrifice unto God, but every one had his Chappell of ease, and his private Oratory by himself; to serve God as he listed; as now of late it hath been with us; David, assoon as ever he was chosen to be King in Hebron, the first work he did, was to consult with his Captains, and all the Congre­gations of Israel, to cite and summon the Priests and Levites, and all the 1 Chron. 13. 1. & 3. Clergy that were for the service of the Tabernacle, to appear before him, and to cause the Ark of God to be brought again unto them, that they might inquire at it, which they did not, nor could do, in the daies of Saul; and when he had assembled the Children of Aaron and the Levites, he shewed 1 Chron. 15. 4 [...] & 12. Vers. 11. them the abuses, that Religion had sustained in the daies of Saul, and he caused the A [...]k to be carried upon the shoulders of the Levites, unto the place that he had prepared for it: and when he had called for Zadok and Abiathar the Priests, and for the Levites, for Ʋriel, Asaiah, and Joel, She­maiah, and Eliol, and Aminidab; he did set down which of the Levites should serve, and in what order they should Minister before the Ark, and he in­joyned 1 Chron. 16. 39. 41. & 42. the sons of Aaron that were Priests, how they should go forward eve­ry one in their course.

And so, according to this Practice of King David, King Solomon his son, and all the succeeding Kings, that were good and godly, did the like; for of Solomon it is recorded, that he appointed according to the order of Da­vid his father, the courses of the Priests to their service, and the Levites to their charges to praise and Minister before the Priests, as the duty of eve­ry 2 Chron. 8. 14. day required; the Porters also, by their courses at every gate; for so David the man of God commanded. And it is further Chronicled of King Solomon, that what his father here projected, and consulted about, the building of an House to the Lord, he really performed; and when he 2 Chron c. 5. &c. 6. &c. 7. had built it, he made a very godly speech, and a most excellent Oration un­to the people, touching the Worship of God and his Religion; and he depo­sed Abiathar, and set up Sadoc in his place, and Sanctified the Temple, and placed the Ark of God therein; and offered burnt offerings and Sacri­fices, and directed the Priests and Levites in all their proceedings, even as his father David had done before him; and that which is very observeable, it is said, that the Priests and Levites left nothing unobserved, but did all things, according as they had received in commandment from the King.

So likewise King Jehosophat is highly commended for his piety and Re­ligious care of Gods Worship; for it is recorded of him, that he appointed and disposed the Priests and Levites to do the service of the Tabernacle; and that by order of his Authority the Woods, and Groves, and High places, which were the lets and hinderances of the true Religion, were quite re­moved [Page 36] and taken away, because the people by their private Meetings and Conventicles in those places to serve God, as they now adayes do with us, wholly neglected the Cathedral and Mother-Church, which was at Hie­rusalem, and to which they were, from every corner of the Kingdom, year­ly 2 Chron. 17. 7, 8, 9. to repair.

And when the Service of God was corrupted, and the Temple most fil­thily defiled, through the negligence and sinfulness of the Priests, King Ezechias commanded it to be purged, and he caused lights to be set up▪ in­cense 2 Chron. 29. per totum. to be burned, Sacrifices to be performed, and the Brazen Serpent, that was become an Idol and worshipped by the people, to be broken down, and consumed to ashes.

So King Joas reproved the Priests, of his time, for their excessive abuses, and the insolent behaviour that was seen in them; for he sequestred the oblations of the people, which the Priests had unjustly and wantonly taken, and appropriated to themselves, and by his Royal Authority, caused 2 Reg. 12. 7. them to be converted for the reparation of the Temple.

And King Josias, to his everlasting praise, shewed himself most careful to suppresse the Idolatrous Priests, to purge the Church from all Idolatry and Superstition, and to put the Priests and Levites in mind of their duties; as you may see in 2 Reg. 23. per totum. 2 Reg. 23. Obj.

And if our adversaries of the Roman Church, do object and say, Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia? What hath the Emperour or any lay-Prince to do with the Church? let him rule the Common wealth, and leave Religion and what belongs to God's Worship, to be ordered and observed by the Pope, Bishops, and Priests, whose Office and Calling is, to take care, and to see the Church of God should be sufficiently served, and all holy duties holi­ly performed. And the examples alleaged, infringe not the force of this Objection: because David was a Prophet, even as Moses was; and his ordering the affairs of the Temple, and setling the Service of the Church, was done by vertue of his Prophetical, and not of his Princely Office. And Solomon was Divinely inspired by God's holy Spirit, both for the building of the Temple, and the ordering of the Priests and Levites for the Service of the Temple. And as Jehu had the direction of the Prophet Elisha, for the suppression of the Priests of Baal, so had Ezechias the Prophet Esay to direct him in the pu [...]ging of the Temple, and R [...]formation of those abuses, that had crep [...] [...] into the Service of God.

To this we answer, That as Joshua the Prince, was required to go in Sol. and out at the word of Eleazar the Priest, so we yield, that the King ought to hearken to the counsel and direction of his Bishop and Priest, as David here did consult with Nathan, and Ezechias with the Prophet Esay. And while Religion is purely maintained, the people truly instructed, and the Church rightly and orderly governed by the Bishops, and the rest of the Ecclesiastical Governours, the Prince needs not to trouble himself with any Reformation, or to meddle with the matters of Religion: But the King, Prince, and Supreme Magistrate ought to see, that all the aforesaid things are so; and if they be not, to correct the Priest, when he is careless, and to cause all the abuses, that he seeth in the Church, and in Religion, to be Reformed: Because, as S. Augustine saith, In hoc reges Deo serviunt, sicut Augustin. con­tra Cresconium l. 3. c. 51. iis divin [...]tùs praecipitur, in quantum sunt reges, si in suis regnis bona jubeant, & mala prohibeant, non solum quae pertinent ad humanam societatem, verum­etiam quae ad Divinam religionem. In this Kings and Princes do serve God, as they are commanded by God, if they do command, as they are Kings in their Kingdoms, those things that are good and honest, and prohibit the things that are evil, no [...] only in causes, that do properly appertain to civil society, but also in such th [...]ngs as belong and have refer [...]nce to Religion and Piety. And when they do so, the Bishops and Priests, be they whom you [Page 37] will, should observe their Commands, and submitt themselves in all o­bedience That the Bi­shops & Priests ought to sub­mit themselves to the lawful commands & directions of their Kings & civil Govern­ours. to their Determinations and censures. For Moses was the civil Magistrate, and the Governour of the people, and, as he received them from God, so he delivered unto the people all the Laws, Statutes, and Ordinances that appertained to Religion, and to the Service of God: And when Aaron erected, and set up the golden Calf, to be worshipped, and so violated the true Religion and Service of God, Moses reproved and censured him; and Aaron, though he was the High Priest of God, and the Bishop of the people▪ yet as a good example for all other Priests, and Bishops, he submitted himself most submissively unto Moses the chief Magistrate, and said, Let not the anger of my Lord wax hot. And I would the Pope would Exod▪ 32. 22. do so likewise.

And therefore, though we say the Judge is to be preferred before the Prince, in the knowledge of the Laws; and the Doctor of Physick in pre­scribing potions for our health, and the Pilot in guiding his Ship, which the King perhaps cannot do: Yet it cannot be denied, but the King hath the commanding power to cause all these to do their du [...]ies; and to punish them, if they neglect it. So, though the King cannot preach, and may not ad­minister the holy Sacraments, nor intrude himself with Saul and Ʋzzia to execute the Office of the Priest or Bishop; yet he may and ought to require and command both Priests and Bishops to do their duties, and to uphold the true Religion, and the Service of God, as they ought to do, and both to censure them, as Moses did Aaron, and also to punish them, as Solomon did Abiathar, if their offence so deserve, when they neglect to do it; and both Priests and Bishops ought, like Aaron and Abiathar, to submit themselves unto their censures.

CHAP. VII.

BUt against this Doctrine of the Prince his authority to rectifie the Obj. things that are amisse, and out of order in the Church of God, the Je­suites and their followers tell us, Spirituales dignit [...]tes praestantiores [...]sse se­cularibus seu mundanis dignitatibus; That the Spiritual Dignities are more excellent than those that are worldly. When as these two Governments, Gen. 1. 16. Rom. 13 12. And though th [...] light of the Church be the greater; yet that proves not but that the King should be the prime and chief Gover­no [...] of the Church. the one of the Church, and the other, of the Common-wealth, are like the two great Lights, that God hath made, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; and the Government of the Church must needs be acknowledged to be the Day, and to have the greater light to guide and to direct it. The Apostle telling us plainly, that now the Gospel being come, and the Church of Christ established, the night is past, or far spent, and the day is at hand, and come amongst us. And the Government of the Sec [...]lar State, is like the Moon, that ruleth the Night, and receiveth her cleerest light from the Sun; as all Christian Kingdoms do receive their best light, and surest Rules of Government from the Church of God, which is the p [...]llar and the ground of truth: But,

To these, that thus make the Civil Government subordinate to that, [Page 38] which is Spiritual, as both the Papists and our Fanatick-Sectaries here a­mongst us, like the old doting Donatists, would do; and so abridge and de­prive the Christian Prince of his just right and jurisdiction over the affairs and persons of the Church: I answer,

1. That Symbolical propositions, examples, parables, comparisons, and Sol. similitudes, can prove nothing; they may serve for some illustrations, but for no infallible demonstrations of truth.

2. I say, that Isidorus, a popish Doctor, preferreth the Government of the Isidorus in [...]l [...]s­sa in Gen. ut citatur. In the Scourge of Sacriledge. Kingdom, before the Priesthood, by comparing the Kingdom unto the Sun, and the Priesthood unto the Moon.

3. I say, that Theodore Balsamon, a good School-man, saith, Nota Ca­nonem: Dicit Spirituales dignitates esse praestantiores secularibus; sed ne hoc eò traxeris, ut Ecclesiasti [...]ae dignitates praeferantur Imperat [...]riis, quia illis subjiciuntur. You must note, that when the Canon saith, the Spiritual dig­nities are more excellent than the Secular, you must not so understand it, Balsamon in Sext [...] Synodo Canon [...] 7. as to prefer the Ecclesiastical Rule or Dignities, before the Imperial State, because they are subject unto it, and so to be ruled by it.

4. And lastly, I say, that the Regal Government, or Temporal State, and civil Government of the Common-wealth, is not meerly secular and worldly, as if Kings and Princes, and other civil Magistrates, were to take no care of mens souls, and future happiness, which they are bound to do; and not to say with Cain, Nunquid ego custos fratris, Am I obliged to look what shall become of their souls? But they are called Secular States, and civil Government, because the greatest, though not the chiefest part of their time and imployment, is spent about Civil affairs, and the outward happi­ness of the Kingdom, even as the Ecclesiastical persons are bound to pro­vide for the poor, and to procure peace, and compose differen [...]es among neighbours, and the like civil offices; though the most and chiefest part of their time and labour is to be spent in the Service of God, and for the good of the souls of their people. And so Johannes de Parisiis, another man of Johannes de Parisiis Can. 18. the Roman Church, doth very honestly say, Falluntur qui supponunt, quod potestas regalis, sit Corporalis, & non Spiritualis, & quod habeat curam corpo­rum & non animarum, quod est falsissimum: They are deceived, which sup­pose that the Regal power is only co [...]poral, and not spiritual, and that it hath but the care and charge over the bodies of his Subjects, and not of their souls; W [...]ich is most false.

2. They say, as I have said even now, that similitudes, and examples Obj. nihil ponunt in esse, and are no apodictical proofs for any weighty matters, especially the examples of the old Testament, to confirm the doing of the like things under the new Testament; because, that for us to be guided and directed by the examples of the old Law, is the high-way to lead us to in­finite- inconveniences.

Therefore it followeth not, that because the Kings of Israel and Juda did such things, as are fore shewed, unto the Priests and Levites, and the setling of the Service in the Temple; therefore our Moderne Princes should have the like Authority, to do the like things unto the Bishops and Priests of the new Testament, about the Worship of God, and the Govern­ment of his Church; and especially in the censuring of them, that are ap­pointed by Christ to be the Prime Governours, of the same.

To this I answer 1. That this is, as the Schooles say, Petitio principii, and Sol. a begging of the Question; for we say, that although, for the p [...]rfecting of the Saints, for the work of the Ministery, for the edifying or building up of Ephes. 4. 12. the body of Christ, that is, the Church, God hath set in his Church, first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, thirdly Teachers; and so Bishops and Priests 1 Cor. 12. 28. primarily and principally, to discharge the aforesaid Offices and Duties: yet this proveth not that they are simply and absolutely the Prime Governours, [Page 39] and Chief Rulers of the Church; but that the Kings and Princes, in the In what sense the Bishops & Priests, and in what sense Kings & Prin­ces may be said to be the prime Governours of the Church. Esay 49. 23. other respects aforenamed, may be justly said to be the Prime and Supreme Gover [...]ours, as well in all causes Ecclesiastical, as Temporal; for the Pro­phet Esay, speaking of the Church of the Gospel, saith, That Kings should be her nursing fathers, and Q [...]eens her nursing mothers. And I hope you will yield, that the fathers and mothers, are the Prime and Supremest Governours of their children, rather than their School-masters and Teachers.

But, though the progeny of the Pope, and our frantick Sectaries, would fain thrust out the eyes of the politick Prince, and make him just like Po­lyphemus, that had a body of vast dimensions, but of a single fight, scarce able to see his wayes, and to govern himself; yet I shall, by God's assistance, make it most apparent unto you, by the testimony of the Fathers, Councils, and some Popish Authors, that the Soveraign Prince hath, and ought to have, alwayes a peremptory Supreme power, as well over the Ecclesiastical per­sons, and causes of the Church, as over the Civil persons and causes of the Temporal State and Common-wealth; For,

1. S. Augustine writing against Parmenian, the Donatist, that would, with 1. The testi­mony of the Fathers▪ Aug. p. 1. Cont. Epist [...]lam Par­mon. our Disciplinarians, that are the very brood of those Donatists, unarme the King of his Spiritual Sword, saith, An forte de Religione fas non est ut di­cat Imperator, vel quos miserit Imperator? Cur ergo ad Imperatorem vestri venerunt legati? Cur eum fecerunt causae su [...] judicem? Is it not lawful for the Emperour, (and so the Prince) or whomsoever he shall send, to treat and determine matters of Religion? If you think it is not, Why did your Messengers then come unto the Emperour? And why did they make him the Judge of their cause? Whereby you see S. Augustine judgeth the Em­perour, or any other Supreme Prince, to have a lawful power to hear, and to determine the points and matters controverted among the Bishops, and so to have a Spiritual jurisdiction as well as a Temporal.

Nicephorus also, in his Preface to the Emperour Immanuel, saith, Tues Nicephorus in praefatione ad Immanuel. Im­perat. Dux professionis fidei nostrae, tu restituisti Catholi [...]am Ecclesiam, & reformasti Ecclesiam Dei à mercatoribus coelestis Doctrinae, & ab h [...]reticis, per verbum veritatis: Thou art the Captain of our Profession, and of the Christian Faith, and thou hast Restored or Reformed the Catholick Church, and cleansed it from those Merchants of the heavenly Doctrine, and from all the Hereticks by the word of Truth. And I think nothing can be said fu [...]er and clearer than this, to justifie the Spiritual jurisdiction of the Prince, and Supreme Magistrate in causes Ecclesiastical. Yet Theodoret and Eusebius say as much Theodoretus l. 1 c. 7. of Constantine the Great.

2. You may read in the Council of Chalcedon, That all the Bishops and 2. The testi­mony of the Councils. Clergy, that were gathered together to that place, (as the Members of our Parliament use to do) were wont to lay down the Canons they had agreed upon in the Council, until the Emperour should come to confirm them with his Royal assent; and when the Emperour came, they said, These Decrees seem good unto us, if they seem so to your Sacred M [...]jesty. And the Bishops of the Council of Constantinople, that was after the first Council of Ephes [...]s, Concil. Chalce­don. Artic. 1. pag. 831. wrote thus submissively unto the Emperour Theodosius, We humbly beseech your Clemency, that as you have honoured the Church with your Letters, by which you have called us together, Ita finalem conclusionem decretorum nostrorum corrobores sententia tua & sigillo, So you would be pleased to strengthen and confirm the last conclusion of our Decrees, by your Royal Sentence and Seal.

3. As the Fathers and Councils do thus acknowledge the Emperours 3. The testi­mony of Popes and Papists. right in the Spiritual jurisdiction; So many of the Popes and Papists them­selves have confest the same truth, and yielded the same right unto the Em­p [...]rour, and other Soveraign Magistrate, in the Church and Church-matters, [Page 40] and over all the parsons belonging unto the Church; for Platina, that [...] Pl [...]tina in s [...]verino papa Library-keeper unto the Pope, saith, that, Without the Letters [...] the Emperour to confirm him, the Pope is no lawfull Pope; and [...] great Scholar, saith, The Pope may be accused before the Emperour, of, and Zabarella de Schismaie & Conciliis. for any notorious crime, and publick scandalous offence; & Imperator potest à papa requirere rationem fidei; and the Emperour may inquire, and call the Pope, to yield an account of his faith and Religion.

And so many of the better Popes were not ashamed to confess the same: for Saint Gregory, who for his great learning and piety was sirnamed, the Great, writing unto Mauritius, the Emperour, saith, Imperatori obedientiam Theodoret l. 2. c. 16. praebui, & pro Deo quod sensi minimè tacui; I have yielded all obedience unto the Emperour, and what I conceived to be truth and for God, I concealed it not: and, before Saint Greg [...]ries time, Pope Liberius, being convented 2 q. 4. Manda­stis. to appear before Constantius, denied not most readily to obey his summons. So did Pope Sixtus upon the like complaint, appear to purge himself be­fore Valentinian; and Pope Leo the third, before Charles the Great. And 2. q. 7. Nos si. it is registred that Pope Leo the 4th. wrote unto the Emperour Lodo­uick saying, Si incompetenter aliquid egimus, & justae legis tramitem non con­servavimus, Epist. Ele [...]th. inter leges. Edovard. admissorum nostrorum cuncta vestro judicio volumus emendare; If we have done any thing unseemly and amiss; and have not observed and walked in the right path of the just law, we are most ready and willing to amend all our admissions, or whatsoever we have done amiss according to your judgment; and Pope Eleutherius saith to Edward the [...]. of England, Theodoretus, l. 2. c. 1. Vos est is Vicarius Dei in Regno vestro, that he (and so every other King) is Gods Vicar in his Kingdom. This was the mind and sense of these Popes, and many other Popes in former ages were of the same mind, until pride, avarice and ambition corrupted them, to be as now they are.

And, as God hath given this power and required this duty of Kings and How the Em­perour and Kings execu­ted the power that God had given them. Princes, to have a care of his Church, and to reform Religion, and the Fathers and Councels have confirmed this truth, and divers of the very Popes themselves, and Papists have yielded, and submitted themselves un­to their spiritual jurisdiction even in the Ecclesiastical causes; so the Emperours and Kings omitted not to execute the same from time to time, es­pecially those that had the master power and ability to discharge their du­ties: for Theodoret writes that Constantine was wont to say, Si episcopus Idem. l. 1. c. 7. turbas det, mea manu coercebitur, If any Bishop shall be turbulent and trouble­some, he shall be refrained and censured by my hands: and both Theodoret and Eusebius tels us how he came in his own person unto the Councell of Sozom. l. 4. c. 16. Nice, Et omnibus exsurgentibus, ipse ingressus est medius, tanquam aliquis Dei coelestis Angelus, the whole company of the Bishops and all the rest arising, he came into the midst amongst them, as it were an Heavenly Angel of God; And Sozomen writeth how that ten Bishops of the East, and ten others of the West, were required by Constantine to be chosen out by the Convocation, Conciliorum, Tom 2. In vita Sylvani, & vig [...]i. and to be sent to his Court, to declare unto him the decrees and canons of the Councell, that he might examine them, and consider whether they were consonant to the Holy Scriptures. And the Emperour Constantius de­posed Pope Liberius of his Bishoprick, and then again he deprived Pope Foelix, and restored Liberius unto the Popedom; and in the third Coun­cell, at Costantinople, he did not only sit among the Bishops, but also subscri­bed, Concil. Bon [...]. 3. c. 2. with the Bishops, to such bills as passed in that Councell, saying, Vidi­mus & Subscripsimus, we have seen these canons and have subscribed our approbation of them. And King Odoacer, touching the Affairs of the Church saith, Miramur quicquam tentatum fuisse sine nobis, We do admire, that you should attempt to do any thing without us: for, while our Bishop lived, (that is the Pope) sine Nobis nihil tentari oportuit, Nothing ought to be done without us; much less ought it to be done, now, when he is dead. [Page 41] And the Emperour Justinian doth very often in Ecclesiastical causes, use Authent. Collat. [...] [...]it. 6. to say, Definimus & j [...]bemus, We determine and command, and we will and require, that none of the Bishops be absent from his Church, above the Quomodo opor­tet Episcop. space of a year; and he saith further, Nullum genus rerum est quod non sit peni­tus quaerendum Authoritate Imperatoris; there is no kind of matter, that may Authent. Collat. Tit. 133. not, or is not to be inquired into, by the Authority of the Emperour; be­cause he hath received from the hands of God the common government and principality over all men. And the same Emperour, as Balsamon saith, Balsamon de Peccat. Tit. 9. Idem in Calced. Concil c. 12. Idem de fide Tit. 1. gave power to the Bishop to absolve a Priest from pennance, and to restore him to his Church: And the same Author saith, that the Emperours dis­posed of Patriarchal seats, and that this power was given them from above: and he saith further, that the Emperour Michael, that ruled in the East, made a law, against the order of the Church, that no Monk should serve in the Ministry, in any Church whatsoever.

And we read further, how that divers of the Emperours have put down Evodius inter decreta Bonifa­cii 1. Ʋ [...]sbergen anno 1045. and deposed divers Popes, as Otho deposed John 13. Honorius deposed Bo­niface, Theodoricus deposed Symma hus, and Henry removed three Popes that had been all unlawfully chosen: and in the Councel of Chalcedon, the Supreme Civil Magistrate adjudged Dioscorus, Juvenalis, and Thalassus, three Bishops of Heresie, and therefore to be degraded, and to be thrust out of the Church.

And so you see how the Emperours, Kings, and Civil Magistrates behaved themselves in the Church of God, and used their power and the Autho­rity that God had given them, as well in the Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Affairs of the Church, and points of Faith, as in the Civil Government of the Common-wealth.

CHAP. VIII.

BUt, as God hath given unto the Kings and Princes of this world, a Power and Authority as well over his Church, and Church-men, be they Prophets, Apostles, Bishops, Priests, or what you will; as over the Com­mon wealth, and all the lay persons of their Dominions; So they ought and are bound to have a special care of Religion, and to discharge their duties for the glory of God, the good of his Church, the promoting of the Chri­stian Faith, and the rooting up of all Sects and Heresies, that defile and cor­rupt the same: for, as Saint Augustine saith, and I shewed you before, In Aug. contra Crescon. l. 3. c. 51. hoc Reges Deo serviunt, herein Kings and Princes do serve God; if, as they are Kings, they injoyn the things that are good, and inhibit those things that are evil, and that Non solum in iis quae pertinent ad humanam Societatem, sed etiam ad divinam Religionem; and again he saith, that Kings do serve Idem Epist. 48. Christ here on earth, when they do make good laws for Christ: and Atha­nasius said unto the Emperour Jovinian, Conveniens est pro principe studium & amor rerum divinarum, It is meet and convenient for a good Prince to [Page 42] study and love Heavenly things, because that in so doing, his heart shall be alwaies, as Solomon saith, in manu Dei, in the hand of God; and Saint Theodoret, l. 4. c. 3. Cyrill tells the Emperours Theodosius and Valentinian, that Ab ea quae erga Deum est pietate, reipublicae vestrae status pendet, the state and condition of Prov. 21. 1. their Common-wealth doth wholly depend, according to that piety and Re­ligion which they bear towards God. Because, as Cardan truely saith, Cardanus do sapientia lib. 3. Summum praesidium Regni est justitia ob apertos tumultus, & Religio ob occultos, Justice is the best defence of a Kingdom, and the suppressor of open tumults, because, righteousness exalteth a Nation; and Religion is the only Protector and safety against all secret and privy Machinations; because, as Minu­tius Minut. F [...]l. in Octav. Foelix saith, What the Civil Magistrate doth with the sword of justice, to suppress the nefarious doers and actours of wickedness, Religion root­eth The want of the fear of God the only thing that maketh Re­bells. out and suppresseth the very thought of evil, which a Godly and a Religious man feareth as much, and more then a wicked and prophane man doth dread the punishment of his offence; and so Religion, Piety, and the fear of God keepeth the very hearts and souls of the subjects from swelling against their Soveraign, and from the least evil thought of Rebellion; and it is the want of the fear of God, and true Religion, whatsoever men pre­tend, that makes Rebels and Traytors in every place; because the true Re­ligion Rom. 13. 1. tels us plainly, that every soul, that is, every man, unfainedly from his heart, should be subject to the Higher Powers; And the true Religion teacheth us as Tertull. saith, Colere Imperatorem, ut hominem à Deo secundum Tertul. ad Sca­pul. & solo Deo minorem, To acknowledge, and to serve the Emperour, and so our King and our Prince, as the next person to God, and inferior to none, but to God. When as he is Omnibus major & solo Deo minor, above all men, and below none, but only God.

And therefore it is most requisite, that all Kings and Princes should have How requisite it is for Kings to have a care to preserve Religion. care of the true Religion and the service of God; and with the Prophet David to build Temples and Churches for him, that hath given their Crowns and Thrones unto them: and to provide maintenance for those ser­vants of God, that serve at his Temple, as they do for those that serve themselves; and so, both to be Religious themselves, and to see that their subjects, so far as it lieth in them, should be so likewise; and this their own piety and goodness in the service of God, will make them famous a­mongst all posterities, and their names to shine as the Sun; when, as Saint Ambrose saith, Nihil honorificentius quàm ut Imperator filius Dei dicatur, no­thing Ambrosius Epist. 32. can be more honorable, then that the Emperour or King should be named and called the Son of God; which is a more glorious E [...]logie, then Ho­mer The fruits and benefits of maintaining true Religion in a kingdom. could give to the best Heroes of all Greece; or that Alexander, Julius Caesar, or the like, could atchieve, by all their military exploits, or the best domestick actions that they have done; and their making provision for the Teachers of the true Religion, and the promoters of Gods service, the Bishops and Ministers of Christ his Church, which makes their subjects both Loyall and obedient unto them, and also Religious towards God, will preserve the peace and procure the happiness of their Kingdoms.

And according as God hath given this Authority, and laid this charge How many former kings were very zea­lous to uphold Religion. upon all Kings and Princes, to have a care of his Religion, and the Mini­sters of his Church; so we find very very many, both in former times, and also of latter years, and so both of Gentiles, Jews, and Christians that were exceeding zealous for the Honor of God, and the upholding of them that served at his Altar; as, 1. Gentile kings.

1. The Gentile Kings, as Pharaoh King of Egypt, that in the extremity of that dearth, which swallowed the whole Land, he made provision for Gods Priests, so that they neither wanted means, nor were driven to sell The great bounty of king Croesus to the god Apollo and to his Priests. their Lands.

And so Croesus King of Lydia, was so wounderfull zealous of the Honor [Page 43] and the worship of the god of Delphos, and so bountifull to Apollo's Priests that Herodotus saith, that he made oblation of three thousand choice Cattel, such as might lawfully be offered; and caused a great stack of wood to be made, wherein he burnt Bedsteads of Silver and Gold, and Golden May­sors with purple rayment, and Coats of exceeding value; and he laid the like charge upon the Lydians, that every man should consecrate those Jew­els, which he possessed most costly and pretious; from which their Sacri­fice, when as the streams of liquid and molten Gold distrained in great a­bundance, he caused thereof to be framed half slates, or sheards, the lon­ger sort, as he intituled them, of six handfull; the shorter of three and a hand breadth in thickness; amounting to the number of an hundred and seventeen. Whereof four were of fined Gold weighing two Talents and a half; and the rest of whiter Gold, that weighed two Talents like­wise; he gave also the similitude of a Lion, in tried and purged Gold, and two Books very fair and stately to see to, the one framed of Gold, weighing eight Talents and a half, with the additionall of twenty four pounds; and the other of Silver: And he presented likewise four silver Tunns, two drinking Cups, the one of Gold and the other of Silver; and silver Rings, with the shape and form of a woman three Cubits high; and withall he offered the Chains, Girdles, and Wast [...]ands of the Queen, his wife; and to the Priests of Amphiaraus he gave a shield, and a speare of solid Gold, and a quiver of the same metall: all which, saith mine Author, he offered in hope to purchase thereby unto himself the gracious favour and good-will of that god: and, if he was so magnificent and bountifull to the Priests and Herodotus, l. [...] clio. Temple of that god, which was no god; how Royall, think you, would he have been, if he had known the true God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

So Cyrus and Darius Kings of Persia and of Babylon, made such royall de­crees for the re-edifying of the Temple at Jerusalem, and the Worshipping Ezra. 1. 7. &c. 6. 5. &c. 8. 9. of the God of Daniel, and his three companions Sidrac, Misach, and Abed­nego, which was the true God, that they are registred in the Book for their perpetuall honour and praise, to this very day; and shall continue longer then the stately Piramides of Egypt, even to the end of the World; when as most others of their laws and actions are shut up in silence, and buried in the grave of forgetfulness.

So Artoxerxes Mnemon, the son of Dariut Nothus, formerly called Ochus or Achus, that in the Persian language signifieth a Prince; was very zea­lous for the building of Gods House; and the inabling of the builders there­of with all things necessary for the work; and as his father Darius said, Let the work of this House of God alone, and let the Governour of the Jews and the elders of them; build this House of God in his place: Moreover I make a decree, (and it was a most Royall decree) what you shall do to the Elders of these Jews, for the building of this House of God, that of the Kings goods, even of the tribute beyond the River, forthwith expences be given to these men that they be not hindered: and that which they have need of, both young Bullocks Here is a glo­rious zeal and a brave Reso­lution for the honour and service of God. and Rams, and Lambs for the burnt offerings of the God of Heaven; Wheat, Salt, Wine, and Oyl, according to the appointment of the Priests; let it be gi­ven them day by day without faile, that they may offer Sacrifices of sweet sa­vours unto the God of Heaven, and pray for the life of the King and of his Sons, that were four,

• 1. Artaxerxes.
• 2. Cyrus, the younger.
• 3. Atossa, called also Arsacas.
• 4. Oxendra.

And I have also made a decree that Whosoever shall alter this word, let Ezra. 6. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Timber be pulled down from his house, and being set up, let him be hanged thereon, [Page 44] and his house be made a dunghill for this: So the son, following the steps of his father (as our Most gracious King doth, in like manner) made a De­cree to all the Treasurers that were beyond the River, That whatsoever Ezra the Priest shall require of you, it be done speedily; Also, we certifie you, that touching any of the Priests and Levites, Singers, Porters, Nethinims or Ezra. c. 7. 21. 24. Ministers of the House of God, it shall not be lawful to impose Tolle, Tribute, or Custom upon them: a thing clean contrary to the practice of our times, when the greatest Tolle, Tax, and Imposition, is usually laid upon the Ministers of the Gospel of Christ: to shew unto you, how far short our Christians now are in piety and zeal of Gods Worship, to these Heathens that knew not Christ: and therefore no doubt, but that they shall shall rise in judgement against us, that profess to honour Christ, and yet think we can never take enough from his Church, nor lay Taxes and Loads enough upon his Ministers; And how this will be answered before Christ at the last Day, let the sacrilegious persons that labour so much, and strive so eagerly to take our houses from us consider it; for I know not how to do it.

2. As these Heathen Kings and Monarchs were thus zealously affected 2. The Kings of Israel and Juda. to the House & Service of God, and thus religiously given to provide main­tenance for the Priests and Ministers of the Temple; So the Kings of Israel and Juda were no whit inferiour unto them: but in a far righter way, and to a truer God than most of the Heathens did: For here you see King Da­vid adjudged it to be as needful to build a Temple for God, as to erect an house for himself. And so the Books of the Kings, and the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel and Juda, do sufficiently set down, how Solomon did most religiously build God's House, and offered Royal Sacrifices in that House, and most orderly setled the Priests and Levites, to do the Service of God in this Temple, that he had built. And so Jehosophat, Ezechias, Josias, and all the rest of the good Kings of Juda, did execute the power that God had given them, in the setling and establishing of His Religion, and the True Worship of God, as you may most amply read in their lives: And those Kings that did not care for the preservation of the True Religion, and Gods Service, and his Houses, as Jeroboam, Baasha, Ahab, and the like, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against them, that he rooted them and their posterity out of their own house, because they neglected the Service and the House of God. And so he will do to all those Kings and Princes, that will imitate them in prophaning his House, neglecting his Service, and abusing his servants, because that with Him there is no respect of persons, but Psalm. 148. He will bind Kings in fetters, and their Nobles with links of iron.

3. The Christian Emperours and Kings, are not left un-Chronicled for 3. The Chri­stian Kings. their great zeal, extraordinary care, and Royal bounty towards the Bishops and Ministers of Christ, to propagated and uphold the Christian Religion. For it is Registred in the Writings of those times, that Constantius the fa­ther of Constantine the Great, was wont to say, That he respected the Prea­chers of the Gospel, more than the Treasures of his Exchequer. And his son Constantine was called Great, as well for his Piety, that made him like John Baptist to be Magnus coram Domino, Great in the sight of the Lord, as for his Potency, that made him Great among men. And Eusebius, (that wrote the Life of Constantine, and sets down his Piety) saith, The Court of the Emperour Valerian, was so replenished with godly men, and religious Christians, that it seemed to be the Church of God rather than the Kings Court: So great a care had he of Religion and the Service of God, that, as the Prophet David saith, none should be his servants, that served not God, Psal. 101. 9. but whoso leadeth a godly life, he shall be my servant, said this good Em­perdu [...], as good King David said before him.

And the Emperour Jovinian, that succeeded Julian the Apostate, who [Page 45] withdrew very many from the Christian Religion, to imbrace the idolatrous service and superstitions of the Heathens, when he attained unto the Em­pire, said to the people, That he would be a King of Christians, or he would be no King at all. And Alphonsus, King of Arragon, is made Fa­mous in all Chronicles, for the great love he bare to Learning, and especi­ally for the great zeal he had to the Christian Religion, and the great care he took to promote the Gospel of Christ, and to pro­vide for his servants: and when some other King said unto him, That it was too base an office for a King to trouble himself with such affairs; Alphonsus answered, Vox bovis ista est potius quàm regis, That voice seemed to him to be the voice of an Oxe, rather than of a King. And as Theodosius and Valentinian, very Christian like, called themselves the vassals of Christ; so Constantine was wont to say, That he gloried more to be the servant of Christ, than in being the Emperour of the World.

And as these pious Kings, and godly Emperours were thus zealous to maintain the Christian Religion, which bare up the Pillars of their Domi­nions, and makes their names now, to live glorious, though they are dead; So the Throne of this Empire and Kingdom of Great Britaine, hath not That this our kingdom had many zealous, and most god­ly Kings. wanted devout Princes, and most worthy Kings, that have trod in the steps of King David, to provide Houses for God's Service, and to imitate the examples of the best of the aforesaid pious Princes, to see the Religion of Christ, and the True Faith purely maintained within their Kingdoms: as you may find it in our Chronicles, and the Statutes of King Inas, King Alfred, King Edward, that for his devotion and zeal to the Christian Reli­gion, was rightly called Saint Edward, King Ethelstane, and King Canutus Vide Speed. lib. 8. c. 3. the Dane, that laid the foundation of his Building, to compose the differ­ences of Religion, and to rectifie whatsoever he found amisse therein, before he entred upon the causes of the Common-wealth; For I read it Registred, that after sundry Laws inacted, touching our Religion, and the Faith of Christ, as the celebration of certain Holy-dayes, the right form of Baptism, the duty of Fasting, the teaching of the Lords Prayer unto the people, the administration of the Common-prayer, and the celebration of the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ thrice every year, and some other Duties of our Religion, this Title followeth, Jam sequitur institutio legum saecularium, which, as Speed sheweth, are most excellent for the exe­cution Speed quo su­pra, pag. 384. of Justice. And it is Recorded, that William the Conqueror, in one of his Parliaments, said, That he being Vice-gerent to the King of kings, holdeth his Kingdom to this end, to defend his people, and especially the people of God, and his holy Church, that is, the Bishops and Priests to teach the people, and to performe the Worship and Service of God in his Church.

And even, in our own dayes, (the Holy Name of God be for ever blessed and praised for it) we have had such pious Kings, as, I believe, I may justly say, The Christian World, for Piety and Religion, for love to God's Mini­sters, and the care of God's Worship, could shew but very few like them, and none to precede them therein; and that is, King James, and King Charles the First, whose glorious name, above all other Kings, since Christ, The rare and just commen­dation of King Charles the First. I shall ever honour and extoll, as the most constant Defender of the Christian Faith, the most loving Patron of God's Ministers, the Bishops and Prea­chers of his Word, and the most faithful Witness and Martyr, that lost his life for the preservation of God's Church, and the Religion of Jesus Christ, with whom I do alwayes, when I think of him, behold and see him Crowned with Eternal Glory: The most Blessed of all our Kings, and the Best of all our Saints.

CHAP. IX.

YOu have heard, how that God hath given the Power and Authority unto Kings and Princes, to be the Supervisors, Directors, and Repro­vers of things amiss, as well in the Church, as in the Common-wealth: And how he requireth and commandeth them, to discharge those Duties accor­dingly; and to have a care to preserve his Religion, as they do regard their own Salvation. You have likewise heard, how all Kings, both Hea­thens, Jews, and Christians, did execute that power, and, according to their ability, discharged their Duties, as well in the Spiritual jurisdiction of Ec­clesiastical causes, as in the decision of Civil causes. It resteth, that I should shew unto you, the chiefest Parts and Duties, that they owe to God, and are to discharge, for the promoting of his Service, and the Religion of Jesus Christ. And I conceive them principally to consist in these Four Points, which may be like the four Rivers of Paradise, to water the Garden The four chief­est things that Kings & Prin­ces ought to do for the uphol­ding of God's Religion, and the Service of Jesus Christ. of God's Church, to make it to bring forth plenty of fruits, to the glory of God, and the salvation of mens souls. And they are,

1. To take care, and to cause, that there should be Cathedral-Churches and Chappels fairly built, and decently trimmed and adorned, as befits the Houses of God, for his people to meet in, for the Worship and Service of God.

2. To see that alle, honest, and religious Bishops be placed in those Ca­thedrals, and others the like pious and painful Ministers, be appointed in all the Parochial Churches and Chappels, to perform the true Service of God as they ought to do; and to see those Drones that neglect it, and those factious Sectaries and Hereticks that defile and corrupt it, and those scandalous livers, that do much prejudice unto their holy Calling, to be punished, and removed, if they amend not, for their negligence and trans­gressions.

3. To provide, by their good Laws such maintenance, revenues, and means for the Reverend, and godly Bishops, and the rest of the worthy Clergy, whereby they may be inabled with joy and comfort, to dis­charge their duties in God's Service, to his glory, and the good of his people.

4. To put a bar, and to hinder by their Regal power and authority all the sacrilegious violaters of holy things to rob the Church of Christ, and his servants, and to commit the horrible sin of Sacriledge, which is so tran­scendently abominable in the sight of God, and so infinitely destructive to the souls of men.

These things ought to be done, as I conceive, by all good and godly 1. The neces­sity of Cathe­dral-Churches and other Pa­rochial Chap­pels for the Service of God. Kings and Princes; and whoso doth these things shall never fail. And.

1. In defence of Cathedral-Churches, we have to alleadge, that till the time of Euaristus and Dionysius, Popes of Rome, no other kind of ministe­rial Church was ever heard of, from the beginning of the World; for from Adam unto Moses, men did call upon the Name of the Lord, and offered [Page 47] Sacrifices, but without any ministerial Church at all. And in Moses time, Platina de vi­tis Pontif. Carrion annal. Monarch. Exod. 25. 40, Acts 7. 44. 2 Sam. 7. 6. Acts 7. 47. God commanded him to erect a Tabernacle, which stood instead of a Church for all the Land of Judea, and that was Templum portatile, as Josephus calls it, to be carried up and down, until the dayes of Solomon. But Solomon erected a Temple, as a standing Church at Hierusalem, to be in the place of the Tabernacle. And then, until the time of the Gospel, there was no other Church for God's people, (I speak not of the Gentiles idolatrous Temples) throughout the whole World. And that Metropolitan Church of Hierusalem was more than Diocesan or Provincial, for it was National, for the whole Kingdom of Jury. And after the Gospel was preached un­to the Gentiles, and all Nations began to be converted, then sundry mini­sterial Churches were erected, according to the number of their Bishops; so that every particular Bishop had his particular Church, after the manner and in imitation of the Jews, which having but one Bishoprick, and one High Priest, or Bishop, had likewise but one Cathedral-Church for that whole Nation. And afterwards, when the Bishops saw the multitude of Christians exceedingly increasing, Evaristus first, Titulos seu Paraesias in urbe Roma presbyteris divisit, & post eum Dionysius idem fecit; And after him Dio­nysius the Pope, devised Parochial Congregations, and divided every Bi­shoprick into particular constant Congregations, which were but Members, and their Churches but the Chappels, of the Diocesan and Provincial Churches. And the use for which both the Cathedral and Parochial Chur­ches do serve, was and is, for the servants of God to meet in them for to worship God; and this, besides the practice of all times ab origine to this very day, do sufficiently conclude the necessity of them.

1. For as the body politick, or the whole multitude of the Common­wealth, is to be divided into his several Limits, Provinces, Counties, Baro­nies, 1. Publick prayers are more preva­lent with God than the pri­vate prayers. and the like; so the collective and mystical body of God's Church, is to be distributed into several Congregations, as the body natural is to be distinguished by the several parts and parcells thereof: and though as we are private and particular men, the place, and time; and form of prayer and service of God are in the choice of every particular man, according to the condition of his necessity and private occasion; yet as every particular man is a member of the publick State, either Temporal or Ecclesiastical, Church or Common-wealth; so the service that he oweth, and ought to perform, either to the King, or to God, must needs be publick, and together with the rest of the members of the State; and so the publick Service is so much worthier than the private, and excelleth the same, as much as a Society or Congregation of men, is worthier and excelleth one particular man.

And S. Chrysostom, to shew the excellency of the publick Service of God, S. Chrysostomes example to shew the bene­fit of publick prayer, and how it excel­leth the pri­vate. and Common-prayer before and above any private prayer or service, saith, That as the coals of fire being scattered do yield but little heat, and will soon die; but when they are close heaped together, they'l yield much heat, and the fire continueth long; So a multitude of devout and faithful men gathered together, and with one heart and one soul pouring forth their prayers and petitions unto God, their prayers are a great deal more pre­valent, and more likely to obtain their request from God, then when they are severed, and offered up by every single person; as a twisted thred, like a threefold cord, is far stronger than any two single ones: So, though the prayers of one man be but weak, yet the supplications of many men are very mighty, and like unto the loud sound of thunder, or the noise of many wa­ters, as S. Basil saith; and the consent of desires, the concord betwixt them, and the united love of joynt Assemblies, are so well-pleasing unto God, that as a holy Father saith, Impossible est multorum preces non exaudiri, It is almost impossible, but that the prayers of such associated Congregations [Page 48] should be heard; because, as S. Ambrose saith, The publick meeting of Gods people hath a special promise of Gods presence to be with them, as where Christ saith▪ When two or three are gathered together in his Name, he Matth. 18. 20. will be there in the midst of them.

And therefore the King of Niniv [...]h called his people together, to j [...]yn with him in prayer to God, that they might not be destroyed; and so besetting God, or besieging God, as Tertullian saith, like an Hoste of men, their [...]onas 4. 11. prayer was heard, and they were received into grace. And S. Paul, though he might have confidence his prayer should speed with God assoon, and obtain as much, as any other; yet doth he confess, that the prayers of the Church of Corinth, together with his own prayers, did much help and 2 Cor. 1. 11. further his deliverance from those great troubles that he suffered in Asia.

2. The publick prayers and service of God hath this prerogative above 2. Publick prayers more justifiable th [...] the pri­vate. the private, that they do assure us they are more lawfull, and shall sooner be heard of God; because the things prayed for, and deprecated, are judged to be good and needfull, and are so approved of by the general judgment of the whole Congregation, when we hear them deprecated or desired by the common consent of all the people.

3. The convention or meeting of the people in such publick places to 3 Our devo­tion and zeal are more and more strength­ned in the pub­lick Congrega­tion. serve God, doth sharpen the edge, and as it were give life and strength to every particular mans devotion; for when, through the frailty of our flesh, our spirit waxeth dull, and our zeal beginneth to grow sl [...]ggish to perform these Holy duties, the fervor, that we see in the rest of the Congregation, will mightily serve to stir up our thoughts, and to quicken our devotion to sail along with our brethren to the conclusion of those godly exer­cises.

4. As every particular man is bettered, and much furthered in his devo­tion 4. They are helped by the good examples of others. and service of God, by the good examples that all the Congregation doth shew unto him; so the whole company that considereth it, is not a litle damnified and offended at the way wardness, and neglect of those particular persons, that come not unto the publick service of God: and so, whereas the neglect of our private devotion is only hurtfull to our selves, our refu­sall or remissness to come to the publick exercises of our Religion, doth prejudice many, and gives offence to the whole Church; and you know what our Saviour saith, Woe to that man by whom offence cometh; and therefore Matth 18. 7. woe to him that despiseth the publick exercises of Gods Church, and refu­seth to come unto them.

And for the preventing of this woe, and the rest of the reasons formerly shewed, the Prophet David did so earnestly desire to praise the Lord in the Psal. 26. 12. Congregations; yea, in the great Congregations, and among much people and so affectionately to say, One thing have I desired of the Lord, which I Psal. 3 [...]. 18. will require, even that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the Psal. 27. 4. daies of my life, to behold [...] fair beauty of the Lord, and to visite his Temple.

And therefore, seeing it is so necessary, that the people of God should publickly meet, and be gathered together to serve God; it is most requisite and necessary, there should be Cathedralls and Parochiall Churches, for them to meet in, for to do the publick service of God.

But against this it may be objected, that the necessity of publick meet­ings, Obj. and the benefits that may be reaped from those Assemblies, rather then from any private serving of God, doth no waies prove the necessity of having Cathedralls and materiall Churches: because the presence of a company of Christian people, wheresoever Assembled, and the offices of Religion, as Preaching, Prayer, and Administring the Sacraments, per­formed; makes the meeting publick: and the peoples exercising these [Page 49] duties makes them to be a Church of God. As the presence of the Prince, and his followers; maketh any mans private house to be the Kings Court.

To this Objection I have fully, and very largely answered, in my second Sol. book of the Great Anti-Christ revealed, pag. 84. & deinceps. And there­fore I shall referr my Reader thither to be fully satisfied; yet, here I say, that it is not the Assembly, or the popular conflux of a multitude of men, or the duties that they do though they be the very duties of Religion, that makes the meeting lawfully publick, or the place of Gods publick service; but it must be a Convention, and a gathering together of the people, into such a place, that is assigned and Consecrated for Gods publick service, which makes the publick meeting justifiable and lawfull; otherwise, it is but a private conventicle, altogether unlawfull, though it should consist of never so great a company of men: unless it be, as it was in the Apostles time, in the daies of persecution, or that the people have such lawfull lets and hinderances to come to the Consecrated place of Gods service, as I have set down in the book afore-cited. At all other times, the publick ser­vice of God must be performed in a publick Consecrated place, as it is meet the Holy service should be done in a Holy place; and you must know, that the ubiquity of Gods presence in every place makes not all places alike sa­cred; even as the Lord sheweth unto Moses, when he bids him to pull off Exod. 3. 15. his shoes from his feet, because the place, where thou standest is Holy ground; for the presence of God is either,

• 1. Ordinary, or
  The presence of God two­fold.
• 2. Extraordinary.

And as the extraordinary works of God have distinguished the times, to make some times more Holy then other, so the extraordinary presence of God hath sanctified some places more then others; and the place that he Sanctifieth with his most speciall presence, is the place, which he appoin­teth to his servants, for their publick meeting, to do his service; and he hath not left it in the liberty of every man to run at random, to serve the Lord where he pleased; but, as he designed the time, when they should serve him, so he appointed the place, where they should come to serve him. And so Adam in that short time, which he had in Paradise, wanted not a place (appointed, no doubt, and usuall) to stand before the Lord and to Com­municate with him; and the sons of Adam, being out of Paradise, knew the Gen. 3. 8. place, where God appointed, and expected they should repair to offer their Sacrifices and oblations unto him; and so the Lord tells the Children of Israel that they should not discharge their duties and perform his service in any place that they pleased, but they should seek the place which the Lord Deut. 12. 5. & 14. their God should choose, out of all their Tribes, to put his name there to dwell; and there they should come, with their oblations and offerings to serve him.

And so, when the Israelites had quite vanquished the Canaanites, and subdued the Philistines, and the other their enemies round about; and, as the Text saith, given rest unto his people, the time was come, that the Lord God thought fit to choose the place, to put his name there, and where all the people should publickly meet, to do him service; and the Lord marked out Jerusalem for himself, and in Jerusalem he chose Mount Moriah, the very 2 Chron. 6. 7. place where Abraham was to sacrifice his son Isaac, to be a standing and a permanent place for his name, saying, This shall be my rest for ever, here will I dwell, for I have a delight therein; and there David now resolveth to build his Temple, to be a Cathedrall and the Metropolitan Church for the High Priest, to offer Sacrifice and burnt Offerings unto God, and for the rest of the people there publickly to meet to serve the Lord; and his heart was mightily inflamed with zeal and desire to do it; but the Lord accep­ted [Page 50] of his resolution, and by Nathan his Prophet told him, that, because he was a man of War, and had shed much blood, (and his Church must not have her foundation laid, nor her walls erected in blood) he should not build his Temple, but Solomon his son, that was a Prince of Peace, should erect it in the Place that he appointed, and with the materialls that he had provided; and so he did, as you may see 2 Chron. c. 3. 4, & 5.

And when this Temple was destroyed, and the people, for their sins and neglect of Gods service, and prophanation of this House of God, were led Captives into Babylon, and when, after the time of their Captivity was expired, that is, the full space of 70. years, they were permitted to return into their own Land, the Lord did put it into the heart of Cyrus King of Persia, (as the Prophet Esay fore-shewed he should do, long before the birth of Cyrus) to cause Ezra, Zerub [...]abel, Nehemiah, and the rest of the Elders of the Jews, to build another House and Temple unto God, in the same place, where Salomons Temple did stand; and when the enemies of Gods people, and the prophaners of Gods House, like our malignants, sought to hinder the building of it, the Lord put it in the heart of Darius and his son Artaxerxes to cause it to be finished, according to the decree Ezra 6. 1 [...]. of King Cyrus. And the Jews were so zealous to do it, that they made an end of the work in five years: and so, by reason of their enemies and their haste, it was far disproportionable and different from the former, which made the old men, that had seen the glory and beauty of the first, to weep and la­ment at the mean aspect of the second. And yet it was not so mean, but Josephus Antiq. l. 15. c. ult. that it might be admired for the beauty and majesty of it, especially after that Herod, sirnamed the Great, had repaired, inlarged, and so magnifi­cently beautified the same; so that one of his disciples, in admiration of Mark. 13. 1. the work, saith to Christ, Master, See what manner of stones and what Matth. 24. 1. buildings are here! And the Jews tell him, that it was forty six years in building, before it was brought to that perfection, which Zorobabel did Joh. 2. 20. unto it.

• Cum inch [...]atum erat in secundo anno Cyri, qui regnavit annis— 30.
  Joseph. Antiq. l. 11. c. 4.
• Et post cum Cambyses, regnavit annis——— 8.
• Et absolutum erat Darii Histaspis anno——— 9.
• Et sic dempto primo anno Cyri, remanent anni—— 46.
• sicut Judaei dicunt.

For of this Temple the Jewes here do speak, as Theophlact, Tolet, and Cal­vin do observe.

To this Temple and Metropolitan-Church, the Jews were all required Exod. 23. 17. & 34. 23. & 24. to meet, and to appear before the Lord, to do him service, three times eve­ry year: and because these times were too seldom, and the waies too far for them to come, from all the parts of Jury any oftner, they had from time to time many Synagogues and Chappels, like our Parochiall Churches, Act 13. 27. &c. 15. 21. wherein they might publickly meet, as they did, every Sabbath to serve the Lord; and because this Cathedrall Church, the Temple of the High Priest, Origo [...]arum tempore capti­vitatis Babylo­nicae cepit. Sigon. de rep. l. 2. c. 8. though very large and spacious, yet was not sufficient to contain the many thousands of people that were in the great City of Jerusalem, they had very many Synagogues set up in this City, and Paulus Phagius recoun­teth no less then 400 of them. And Sigonius saith, there were 480. And out of Jerusalem, they had many Synagogues in other Cities and Provinces, as there were Synagogues in Galilee, Matth. 4 23. Synagogues in Damas­cus, Sigon. de repuh. Heb l. 2. c. 8. Maimon. in Typhil. c. 11. Sect. 1. ex Goodw. Act. 9. 2. Synagogues at Salamis, Act. 13. 5. Synagogues at Anti­och, Act. 13. 14. And their Tradition is, saith Maimonides, that where­soever ten men of Israel were, there ought to be built a Synagogue: and the Jews acknowledged it a great favour, and were very thankfull to any man, that built them any of these Synagogues; as the Elders of the Jews besought Christ to heal the servant of the Centurion, because He loved Luk 7. 5. [Page 51] their Nation and had built them a Synagogue. And I would our men would be as glad and as desirous to have our decayed Churches built, and not to make such havock to destroy them, as they do, and that without any cause in the World: For

You may see how Christ himself and his Apostles, came and taught very often not only in the Temple, but also in these l [...]sser Synagogues of the Jews: and it is admirable to consider how the primitive Christians, as Eusebius Euseb. l. 10. c. 3. & 4. recordeth, erected such Oratories and Basilicaes, that is, Royall-houses and Churches, as stately as any Kings Palace, and beautified the same with ex­cessive charges, to make them fit places for the publick meetings of the Chri­stians, to serve their God; and so the Church of Saint Paul in London, and of Saint Peter in Westminster, and the rest of the Cathedrall Churches throughout England, and Ireland, (to pass no further) can bear sufficient witness of the zeal and devotion of our Christian predecessors to erect such M [...]gnos magnà decent. Great, and adorn such Beautifull Houses unto God, as became so great and so glorious a God, (as our God is) to have.

And as the number of the Christians waxed daily beyond number, and increased more and more, as you may conceive, by the increase, which a few weeks time hath wrought after the ascention of Christ; when St. Peter's sermon converted 3000. souls in one day; so it caused the distinction of Assemblies, and the number of Churches to be increased and multiplied in all Countreys and Cities more and more: So that in Rome, about a hun­dred year after Christ, the Congregation of the Christians, became so huge great, that Evaristus then Bishop of Rome, for the avoiding of confusion, and the easier and better instruction of them, caused them to be distributed and parted into fifteen particular Parishes, and assigned fifteen severall Presbyters to instruct and govern them: the Presbyters then being honest men, and no waies contradicting Evaristus.

And to prove that the first Christians, who lived under persecutions, The fi [...]st Chri­stians had some kind of Churches. even from the Apostles time, had some kind of Churches; though as then not so magnificent, you may see in 1 Cor. 12. 18. & 22. &c. 14. 19. & 23. And so the most ancient of the Fathers do bear witness, as Clemens, Tertul­lian, Socrates, and Eusebius, proves the same out of the book of Philo Judaeus, lib. 2. cap. 17. And Lactantius, In carminibus de passione Domini: saith,

Whosoever thou art, that comest to the House of God, stay a while, that is, to consider whither thou goest, and, as Salomon saith, To keep and look to thy foot, when thou goest to the House of God, which is, as God himself expoun­deth the meaning thereof unto Moses, saying, Put off thy shooes from thy Exod. 3. feet; that is, to make clean thy waies, and bring no filth, nor any carnall affections, nor worldly desires into the House of God; because, The place whereon thou standest is Holy ground; that is, by reason of Gods gracious and speciall presence in that place, where Moses stood, and where God is prayed unto, and praised by the Minister, and Worshipped by the rest of his faith­full servants. And if any man desires fuller proofs of this truth, I refer him to Cardinall Bellarmin, and to that excellent and Learned Sermon of Master Mede upon the 1 Cor. 11. 22.

Yet I deny not, but the prime Primitive Christians, and the Church The prime pri­mitive Chri­stians, had no stately Chur­ches: and why. which was at Jerusalem, and received that Religion, that is, the Faith of Christ, which the Scribes and Pharisees and their laws did not allow of, were constrained, many times, to hide their heads in desolate places, and were inforced by stealth to exercise and discharge the duties of their pro­fession [Page 52] in vaults and private houses, where they might be most safe, though the places were not sutable to their service; the swords of their enemies were so sore against them.

But at length, between times, by sufferance and connivency, and some­times through favour and protection, they began to be imboldened, and to reare up Oratories and Churches, though but simple and of mean aspect, because the estates of most of them were but mean and very low, as S. Paul sheweth, Not many Rich, not many Noble are called; which was indeed a 1 Cor. 1. 26. good way to suppress the danger of malignity, that looks not so much after poor estates; and a good way to increase their number, and propagate their design with more safety. And as by this means the Church began to take root, and to grow stronger; and the wealthier, nobler, and wiser men be­gan to be in love with the Christian Religion; So then they loved nothing more than to build Churches answerable for their beauty, to the d [...]gnity of How zealously the fi [...]st Chri­stians were af­fected, & how bountifully they contribu­ted towards the building of their Chur­ches. their Religion, and for their greatness to the number of their Professors; And the devotion of these Christians was so large, and did so liberally con­tribute towards the erecting of their Churches, as the Israelites in the dayes of Bezaliel did chearfully present their Gifts and Free-will-offerings to­wards the setting up of the Tabernacle: no man was backward, and no man a niggard in this work, which they conceived to be so profitable and so necessary for them to do: and that in two special respects.

• 1. The good that is effected,
• 2. The evils that are prevented

by the publick meeting of the people in these Churches.

1. The meeting of the Congregation publickly in a lawful place, and a The double benefit that we reap by our coming to the Publick meet­ing in the Church. 1. Benefit. consecrated Church, assures them they offend not the Laws, either of God or man, and so secures them from all blame, and prevents the occasion to traduce, and to suspect the lawfulnesse of the holy Duties, that we per­form; when as Veritas non quaerit angulos, Truth and the performance of just things and holy actions, need not run and hide themselves in private, hidden, and unlawful places, but may shew themselves and appear so publickly, as they might not be subject to any, the least unjust impu­tation.

2. The meeting in a publick consecrated Church, and not in a private 2. Benefit. Conventicle, escapes those dangerous plots and machinations, that are very often invented and contrived in those Conventicles, that are vailed for that purpose, under the mantle and pretence of Religion; And it freeth the comers unto the Church from those seditious Doctrines and damnable Divi­nity, which the Sectaries and Hereticks do scatter and broach in those un­lawful Conventicles, which are the fittest places for them, to effect their wicked purpose, and must needs be sinful, and offend both God and man: because, they are contrary to the Laws, both of God and man; Whenas the coming unto the Church quits my conscience from all fear of offend­ing, because that herein I do obey, and do agreeable to the Laws both of God and man. And who then that hath any dram of wit, would not a­void private and forbidden meetings, and go to serve God, unto the pub­lick Church, which is the House of God, erected and dedicated for his Service?

CHAP. X.

ANd yet for all this, and all that we can say for the Church of God, I find Four sorts of Objections, that are made by our Fanaticks and 4 Sorts of Ob­jections against our Material Churches. Skenimastices against our Material Churches. As,

• 1. Against the Necessity.
• 2. Against the Sanctity.
• 3. Against the Beauty & Glory▪
• 4. Against the impurity & Impiety of them.

1. They do object, there is no Necessity of any Material House or Church 1. Objection against the ne­cessity▪ that we have no need of Churches. of God for his servants to meet in to serve God; because the woman of Samaria, discoursing with Christ about the place where God would be worshipped, Whether in that Mountain, where the Fathers worshipped, or in Hierusalem, which, as the Jews said, was the place where men ought to worship; Our Saviour tells her plainly, They worshipped they knew not what; for the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this Mountain, nor yet in Hierusalem, worship the Father; but the true worshippers shall worship the Fa­ther in spirit and in truth; because, God is a Spirit, and they that worship John 4. 20, 23. him, must worship him in Spirit and in truth; and such worshippers the Father seeks, and such he loves.

And therefore, so we have clean hearts, and pure consciences, and wor­ship God with our souls and spirits, faithfully to pray unto him, and to praise his Name, it is no matter for the place where we do it, in a Church, or in a Barn; because God looks rather to the inward heart, than to the out­ward place where we stand.

To this I answer, Maledicta glossa quae corrumpit textum, and our Saviours Sol. words gives them no colour to extort such consequences, and to draw such conclusions from them; for the words are plain enough, that although for­merly, before Moses his time, Jacob had a Well near Sichar, and he with the other Fathers, worshipped God in that Mountain, and afterwards God required them to worship him in the place, that he should chuse to put his Name there, which, after the time of David, and the building of his Tem­ple by Solomon, was to be Hierusalem, and no where else, to perform the commanded Publick Service of God, under the punishment of cutting off that soul from his people, that should do otherwise.

Yet the hour cometh, and now is, that is, coming, or beginning to come, that the partition-Wall betwixt the Jews and the Gentiles shall be broken down, and the bounds and borders of Gods Church, and the true worship­pers of God, shall be inlarged, and they may lawfully, without offence, wor­ship God, not only in Jury, where God was only formerly known aright; but also in all the Nations, and in any Kingdom of the World, so they wor­ship him in spirit and in truth, as they ought to do: But here is not one syllable, intimating, that they should not, or needed not, to meet to serve God in the Publick Church, but that whensoever, and wheresoever, in any Kingdom of the Earth, they should gather themselves together in the Pub­lick Church, to worship God, they should worship him in spirit and in truth, otherwise, their worship is to no purpose, and will avail them nothing, though they should do i [...] publickly in the Church. This is the true meaning of our Saviours words.

2. We have another sort of Sectaries, that yield it requisite and conve­nient Obj. 2 for the Saints and servants of God to meet and gather themselves to­gether for the Service of God, and do acknowledg the great benefits, that may accrew and be obtained in a Congregation, rather than by any single person; but they think there is no necessity of their meeting in a Material Church, or a Steeple-house, as they call it, rather than in a house, or a cham­ber, or a barn, or any other place, where they shall appoint to meet; be­cause God hath made all places, and there is no reall Sanctity in any one place, more than in any other; but the sanctity or holiness must be in the hearts of the men, and not in the place, which is not capable of any sanctity; and therefore, it is rather our superstition, than Gods injunction, to require and command men to come to such Material Churches, as to the more san­ctified places, rather than to such private houses, where these Saints do pub­lickly meet to serve God.

To make a full Answer to this their Objection, you must understand, Sol. that the word [...], holy, is derived from the privative particle, [...] and [...], which signifieth the Earth, as if to be holy, were nothing else, but to be pure and clean, and separated from all earthly touch: And it is taken two wayes.

• 1. [...]. Simply.
  Holiness taken two wayes. 1. Way.
• 2. [...] In some respects: And,

1. Way: God only is Holy, and the Author of all Holiness; and as the Blessed Virgin saith, Holy is his Name: And therefore those Seraphims, which Esaias saw, and those wonderous creatures which S. John saw, did Esay 6. 3. Apoc. 4. 8. cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts, three times together, which we do not read of any other Attribute of God. And the Lord himself, in that golden Pla [...]e, that was to be on Aarons forehead, caused these words to be ingraven, [...], Holiness is of the Lord, as Tremellius reads it; or, Sanctum Domino, Holiness belongeth to the Lord, as the Vulgar hath it.

2. Way: Many other things are stiled holy, by communication of holiness, 2. Way. and receiving their holiness from this Fountain of Holiness: And so,

• 1. The Man Christ Jesus,
• 2. The faithful Members of Christ,
• 3. The Outward Professors of the Christian Religion,
• 4. All things Dedicated, and that have relation to God▪ Service; as Times, Persons, Places, and Things, are termed holy, san­ctitate re­lativa.

1. The Man Christ is perfectly, and singularly Holy, as Beda saith; And that,

• 1. By reason of his Hypostatical union with the Godhead.
• 2. By reason of the most perfect qual [...]ity of Holiness impressed by the Holy Ghost into his Humanity.

2. The true Members of Christ are truly styled holy, by reason of that holiness which the Holy Spirit of God worketh in them, and they practise in their lives and conversations.

3. All those that do outwardly profess the holy Religion of Jesus Christ, are called Saints by the holy Apostles: and so they are in respect of all Rom. 1. others, that either do prophane, abuse, or neglect the same.

4. All the things, that are Consecrated by the prayers of the Bishop for the Service of God, and those things that are Dedicated and given for the furtherance, and maintenance of God's Worship, as Lands, Houses, and the like, are by a relative sanctity, rightly termed holy things; because, they are separated and set apart, as S. Paul saith of himself, ( [...].) for holy uses, to bring men to holiness, to honour, serve, and worship God that is Holiness it self.

And in this respect, we say, that the very ground, walls, windows, and timber, of the Material Church, that are set forth, Dedicated, and Conse­crated [Page 55] for God's Service, are holy things; not by any inherent reall sanctity infused into them; but by a relative holiness ascribed and appropriated unto them, by their Dedication and Consecration for God's Worship, which makes them more holy, and so to be deemed, than all other earthly things whatsoever.

And though I will not lose my time, and waste my paper, to shew the folly and vanity of that ridiculous deduction of the Confuter of Will. Apol­lonius, Grallae pag 29. in the 29. page of his Grallae, against secondary or dependent holi­ness; yet I will justifie the holiness, and religious reverence, that we owe, and should render, unto all the Material Churches, that are Consecrated for Divine-Service, against all prophaners of them, Independents, and Fa­naticks, whatsoever. And for the satisfaction of every good and sober man, that is not drunk with a prejudicate conceit against God's House, I shall desire him to look into 2 Chron. 3. 1. and chap. 6. where he may find the Consecration of God's House, and the prayer that Solomon made at the Consecration of it, and the benefits, the manifold benefits, that they should reap which served God in that House: And if he reads over that Chapter at his leisure, and read it often, and then seriously consider it, and withal remember, that of this House, and the like Consecrated places, that are Dedicated for God's Worship, the Lord himself saith, My House shall be Esay 56. 7. Matth. 21. 1 [...]. Jerem. 7. 10. Psal. 132. 15. called the House of prayer for all people: and our Saviour Christ confirm­eth the same, that the Church, which is the Publick place, or place of Pub­lick Prayers, is rightly called, the House of God, and the House, which is called by his Name; and of which he saith, This shall be my rest for ever, here will I dwell, for I have a delight therein; Will he not confess, that Gods House, and the Place where he dwelleth is Holy? The Confuter of Apollonius confesseth, That so long as a Prince is, and remaineth Grallae pag. 20. in his house, because of his Majesty and pompe, there is nothing in the house, which derives not thence some dignitie and splendor; and will you deny that priviledge to Gods House, which you will yield to the Palace of an earthly Prince? No, certainly it is an holy place. Vide the Great Antichrist Re­vealed. l. 2. c. 5. pag. 88.

Therefore, as God will be served in the time that he appointeth, and by the persons that he chuseth, and after the manner that himself prescri­beth; so he will be worshipped, not where every one pleaseth, but in the place, which is Consecrated and Sanctified for our Holy God to come and to be present with us: as you may see in Levit. 17 8. Exod. 23. 19. and chap. 25. 8. where the Lord chargeth his people, to make him a Sanctuarie, or a Tabernacle, that is, an holy House or Temple, that he might dwell a­mong Exod. 25. 8. them.

And therefore the Prophet David desired, that he might dwell in Gods Tabernacle, and was glad, when the people said, We will go into the House Psal. 27: 4. Psal. 122. 1. Joh. 18. 20. of the Lord. And Christ saith, I ever taught in the Synagogue, and in the Temple, that is, for the most part, and ordinarily, and alwayes when he came to the Temple, and opportunitie offered him occasion so to do. And S. Matthew saith, The blind and the lame came unto him in the Temple, and Matth. 21. 14. he healed them. And so must we come unto him into his Temple, if we desire to be healed of our infirmities. And so the Apostles and Disciples of Christ, after his Ascension into Heaven, met and worshipped God in the Temple. And when the Christians began to be mult [...]plied, they presently erected Oratories and Churches, and consecrated them, as Solomon did the Temple, for God's Service; as you may see in 1 Cor. 11. 22. and from the 14. Chapter of the said Epistle, where the Apostle bids the women to be silent in the Church; for that must not be understood of any other private house or meetings of men, where the women may as lawfully speak as men, or the Apostle had laid too great a burden upon them, and such as they neither could, nor would have born; but his meaning is, that the women [Page 56] should be silent in the Congregation, that publickly meeteth in Gods House for the service of God.

And because That material house was erected and set a part from all Prophane uses, for to pray to God, to Preach unto the people, and to do all other exercises of Religion, as, Administring the Sacraments, Catechi­sing the Youths, Collecting the Alms for the Poor, and the like services of the Lord, and was hallowed and Sanctified by the prayers and Consecra­tion of the Bishop, to be used only for that end, and that God hath promi­sed 2 Chron. 6. his more speciall presence for our help and assistance, in a most speciall manner in that House, more and rather then in any other place, as you may Matth 18. 20. see by Solomons prayer, and by the words of Christ; therefore the true Saints and servants of God, that understood the difference betwixt Holy and Prophane things, did ever Honor and shew a great deal of respect and Reverence to this very place, of Gods Worship; more then to any Chamber of presence of the greatest Monarch of the World: And why not? For if we must be Bare-headed in the Kings Chamber, or the Lord Lieftenants Chamber of Presence, why should not Gods Chamber of Presence have the like Reverence? Surely none, but prophane Atheists, wicked Hereticks, and the members of the beast, that is, the Great Anti-Christ; that are worse then the worst of worldlings, have ever denied it, or abused, prophaned, or blasphemed these, or any of these, material Churches, whereof the Pro­phet saith, Holiness becometh thy House for ever. For, sal. 93. 6.

Though, as I said before, originally and in respect of their own natur [...], In what sense all things are alike Holy. there is no inberent or innate Sanctity in one place more then in another, but all places are alike Holy, and so are all daies, and all meats, and all other things, that are ejusdem speciei, of the same kind; they are all alike Holy, and there is no difference, nor any more Sanctity in any one than in the o­ther, they being all alike created Holily by God, who beheld All the things Gen. 1. 31. that he made, and behold, they were all exceeding good:

Yet, if we consider Gods designation of any of these things, and the San­ctification In what sense some things are more Holy then other things. of the same, by Gods own appointment, for such and such ends and uses in the service of God; then you shall find a great deal of diffe­rence betwixt the one and the other, and a great deal of a relative and ac­cidental Holiness in and belonging to the one more then to the other: o­therwise, what difference will you make betwixt the common bread that we And for the fu [...]ther clear­ing of this point, you may look into Mr. Medes learned discourse De Sanctitate rela­tiva; and his answer to Dr. Twisse; p. 660. and in Levit. 19. 30. eat of the finest Wheat-flower, and the most Holy and blessed bread of the Holy Eucharist, or the Lords Supper? But the Sanctifying of this bread by our prayers to this end, and for this use, to be the body and blood of Christ, makes all the difference; so that now after the words of Consecration of it, which are the words of Christ, Hoc est corpus meum, this is my body; we cannot, without prophaneness and a mighty offence, give the same to dogs, or unbelieving Jews, or to any other, whom we do know to be altogether unworthy of it, as we can give the other bread, that is made of the same lump to either of these, without any fault or offence at all. Or what diffe­rence is there betwixt one day and another? but because the Lord hath de­signed the seventh day to be set apart for his service, and hallowed it for that end; therefore it is more Holy then the other six daies: and so are the daies and feasts, that are appointed by the Church to Honor God in them, as the commemoration of Christ's Nativity, Circumcision, Resurrection, Ascen­tion and other daies of Thanks-giving for some speciall blessings and extraor­dinary favours, which, as on those daies, we have received from God; which daies none will prophane, but the neglecters of Gods Honor, and the pro­phaneners of his service. So what difference, or what holiness is there natu­rally in one man more then in another? none, or little at all: but when the Lord calleth and chooseth one man before another, to be his servant and to be sent, and his Embassadour, to Preach his Word, to Administer his Sa­craments, [Page 57] and causeth him to be Consecrated by prayers, and imposition of hands for that purpose, as he called Simon Peter, before Simon Magus; then there is a great deal of difference betwixt them, and much relative and additionall Holiness in the one more then in the other, insomuch that our Saviour saith of these men, which he saith not of all other men, He that Luk. 10. 16. receiveth you receiveth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me, and the Lord saith of them, which he saith not of all other men, He that toucheth Zach. 2. 8. you, toucheth the apple of mine eye.

And you may see this d [...]fference in the Embassadours, and other Officers of Kings, Princes, and Potentates, whom we Honor and Reverence more then others; because, they are deputed and Authorized to be our Judges, Sheriffes, or other Officers of the Kingdom, where they are designed so to be.

And so likewise, what difference, or what Holiness is there in one place more then in another? In a Stone-Church ground, more than in a Thatch­barn- floor? Surely, not any at all originally, in respect of themselves, simply considered; but, when such a piece of ground is designed, and dedicated for the Worship of God, and Consecrated by prayers for that purpose, and God promiseth his presence, and favour, to be more especially shewed there for our Instruction and Consolation, than in any other ordinary place what­soever; Then certainly there is a great deal of difference, and a great deal of Holiness in that place, and much more Reverence ought to be shewed to it, and in it, than in any other place or common ground; though it were the Kings Pallace. And I say this is but a sign and a point of true Religion and no branch of Superstition.

Therefore Jacob, that was no waies Superstitious, said of that place, where God shewed his presence to him, This is Gods House and the gate of Heaven; Gen. 28. 17. and the Lord said unto Moses, Put off thy shooes from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is Holy ground; and why was that ground more Holy Exod. 3. 5. than any other ground? Not in respect of any innate holiness, but because the Lord reveiled himself there to Moses, more visibly and more graciously than in any other place.

And I pray you look what the Spirit of God adviseth, and injoyneth us to do, when we come into the House of God; To keep thy foot, and much Eccl 5. 1. For this phrase is a Synechdo­che of the part for the whole, of the foot for all the mem­bers of the bo­dy which in the Chuch of God ought to be framed to a Religious de­cency, as to bend the knee, lift up our eyes, uncover the head, and the like. more thy heart, and thy head, as thou oughtest to do; decently and Reve­rently, when thou goest to the House of God; and therefore much more Reve­rently, when thou art and standest in Gods House; And be more ready to hear, then to give the Sacrifice of Fools; which they do, that despise this House of God, which none but fools will do; for if we make no difference of these things, but that every man that will, may intrude himself to do the service, which God requireth to be done by another, and he may do that service any wh [...]re, in any one place as well as in another, in a common barn, as well as in an Holy Church; then surely we need not observe any time, when any one day is as good, and as Holy as another, the Munday as well as the Lords day; and so confounding persons, times, and places, we shall confound all Religion, and we shall suddenly bring Atheism, and all Prophaneness among the people.

CHAP. XI.

THirdly, There be another sort of close-handed, and covetous-hearted Obj. 3 Against the beautifying of our Churches. Fanatick Sectaries; that are much offended at our Beautifying, and Adorning our Churches, so as is fitting and meet for the Houses of God; And they do Object, that God is a Spirit, and will be served in spirit and in truth; and therefore he requireth not our goods, our gold, and our silver, Psal. 50▪ 10. which he hath no need of, or our Cattle, when as all the beasts of the Forrest are his, and so are the Cattle upon a 1000. hills, and he delighteth not in burnt offering: and so the Prophet sheweth, when he demandeth, Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams, or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl? No, no, the Lord careth for no such things, we may keep them all to our selves: for he hath Shewed thee, O man, what is good, and what the Mlch. 6. 7. Lord doth require of thee, and that is, To do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. And therefore the Lord saith not, Give me your gold, to make me Palaces; or your silver, to adorn my house, wherein I dwell not; but give me your hearts, wherein I delight to dwell, if they be pure and clean, and void of the filthiness of sin and corruption, Quia de­liciae meae cum filiis hominum; because, my delights are, to be with the sons of men: and I desire no more of them, but, To fear the Lord their God, to Deut. 10. 12. walk in all his waies, and to love him, and to serve the Lord their God withall their heart, and withall their soul.

And from these and the like premises our Fanaticks do conclude, that as God was never better served, then when his Churches and Oratories were no better then poor mens Cottages; and when the Christians answered their persecuters, in the time of Julian; who said, their service was not so So­lemn, nor their Temples answerable to the Majesty of God, that the best Temples which they could dedicate unto God, wer their Sanctified souls, and clean hearts; so they would have our times to be the like, and our Churches to be no fairer, nor any otherwise beautified then they were in those times of poverty and persecution.

To this I answer and confess, that God delighteth more in the Holiness Sol. of the hearts of them that serve him, then in the honor and beauty of the place where he is served. But, though Moses in the mountain, Job on the In the time of necessity God accepteth our service any where. dunghill, Jeremy in the mire, Daniel in the Lions den, Ezechias in his bed, and the Apostles in the stocks, called upon the name of the Lord and he heard them, and so Christ preached on the Mount, and in the Valley, on the Sea-shore, and in the Ship; and Saint Paul did the like in an upper Cham­ber, and the people heard them, as well then as in the Temple, and God accepted of their service.

Yet, as Saint Paul demands of the Corinthians, whether they thought it seemly, that a woman should be bare-headed in the Church; so I demand [Page 59] of these men, as the Prophet Haggai demandeth of the Jews, Is it fit that you should dwell in sieled houses, and let the House of God lye wast? or, is it meet and Religious that the Church of Christ should be no better beautified then a husband-mans barn? And I may ask of any rational man, if the Sanctity, and Celebrity of the place where God is usually and publickly ser­ved, doth not animate the devotion, and stir up pious thoughts in all good Christians, when they come there to Worship their Saviour in that beauty Psal. 56 9. of Holiness, as the Prophet speaketh.

Therefore the good and godly King David, when he intended to build God an House, saith, That because the Palace was not for man, but for the Lord God; I prepared with all my might for the House of my God, the Gold 1 Chron. 29. 1, 2, 3. for the things that were to be made of Gold, the Silver for things of Silver, and the Brass for things of Brass, the Iron for things of Iron, and Wood for things of Wood, Onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones and of divers How liberally King David gave to build and beautify Gods House. colours, and all manner of Pretious-stones, and Marble-stones in abundance; moreover, because I have set my affection to the House of my God, I have of mine own proper goods, of Gold and Silver which I have given to the House of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy House, even three thousand Talents of Gold, of the Gold of Ophir, and seven thousand Talents of refined Silver, to over-lay the walls of the house withall; The Gold for things of Gold, and the Silver for things of Silver, and for all manner of work to be made by the hands of the Artificers. And so the chief of the Fathers and Princes of the tribes, and Captains also offered most willingly and gave for the service, the building and beautifying of the House of God, of Gold five thousand Talents, and ten thousand drams, and of Silver ten thousand Talents, 1 Chron. 39 7 [...] and of Brass eighteen thousand Talents, and one hundred Talents of Iron.

And not only this good Kings heart, and his people, were thus inlarged The Fathers before Davids time did the like. so freely to offer their goods for the building, beautifying, and adorning of Gods House; but also all other faithfull servants of God, that were zea­lous of Gods Worship, both afore and after Davids time did the like: for, if you consider the building of the Tabernacle, and the furniture that be­long'd unto it, in the time of Moses; you shall find, that, although the peo­ple were but wanders in the wilderness, and therefore could not be very wealthy, nor have any more riches, but only what they brought out of E­gypt; yet this was the free and voluntary dedication of the Altar (in the day when it was anointed) by the Princes of Israel: Twelve Chargers of sil­ver, twelve silver Bouls, twelve Spoons of Gold; each Charger of silver weigh­ing one hundred and thirty shekels; each Boul seventy cicles, or shekels: all the silver vessels weighed two thousand and four hundred shekels, after the she­kel of the Sanctuary; the golden Spoons were twelve, full of incense, weighing ten shekels a piece, after the shekel of the Sanctuary; All the Gold of the Numb: 7. 84, 85, 86. Spoons was one hundred and twenty shekels: every shekel weighing half an ounce. Whereby you may perceive, what care they took in that in­fancy of the Church, to have all the appurtenances of the House of God so fair and so specious as they could possibly make it, even to the uttermost of their abilities.

And so after Davids time, besides the foresaid moneys, that David left for the use of Gods House, (which came to the rate of eight thousand Ta­lents of Gold; and of Silver, seventeen thousand chikars: and every chi­kar containing one thousand and eight hundred cicles, and weighing nine hundred ounces,) King Solomon was so bountifull, and his donation so ex­ceeding large, that it can very hardly be valued; for, besides the stuffes that he laid in of Timber; Marble, Stone, Brass, Iron, Copes, and Pretious­stones, he overlayed the greater House, which he sieled with Firr-trees, with fine G [...]d, and the garnishing of the House with Pretious-stones for beau­ty, and the Gold was the Gold of Parvaim; and he overlayed the House, [Page 60] the beams, the p [...]sts, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof with Gold, and graved Ch [...]ubims on the walls; and he over-laid the most holy House with fine Gold, amounting to six hundred Talents, and the weight of the nailes was fifty Shekels of Gold; and he over-laid the upper Chambers with Gold, and the two Cherubims he over-laid with Gold; and he made ten Candlesticks of Gold, and a hundred Basins of Gold; and the Flowers, and the Lamps, and the Tongs, made he of Gold, and that perfect Gold; and 2 Chron. 3. & 4. the Sn [...]ffers, and the Censers of pure Gold; and the Entry of the House, the Inner-doors, and the doors of the House of the Temple, were of Gold.

And when all these unvaluable Treasures and Furnitures of this House of God were ransacked and carried away by Nebuchadnezzar King of Ba­bylon; and Cyrus, after their 70. years Captivity, gave the Jews leave to Return, and gave them power and licence, to re-edifie and to build the House of God again; these captive Jews, newly returned out of bondage, beyond their ability, were most bountiful in their contributions for the setting up of another Temple: which though for Beauty and Majesty it was no cor­respondent to the former Temple, yet was it very glorious, and finished most readily, and the free Donations of the people were so large, that when all the work was finished, the surplusage of their Gifts, that remained to beau­tifie the same and provide ornaments for it, and to defray other future rec­konings, amounted to 650. Chichars of Silver, and a 100. Chichars of Gold. And to this Nehemias the Tyrshatha gave to the Treasure a thousand drams of Gold, fifty Basins, and five hundred and thirty Priests Garments. And so Nehem. 7. 70. likewise some of the chief of the Fathers and Heads of houses were not be­hind, to build and beautifie this House of God, but gave to the Treasure Verse 71. 72. of the work twentie thousand drams of God, and two thousand and two hun­dred pound of Silver; and that which the rest of the people gave, was twentie thousand drams of Gold, and two thousand pound of Silver, and sixty seven Priests Garments.

Thus you see how the Jews, both in the time of David, and before Da­vid, and after David, and both in their prosperitie and in their adversitie; when they were full, in the dayes of Solomon, and when they were emptie and weak, after their return from Captivity; were most zealously affected to build and beautifie the House of God, and to spare neither Gold nor Silver to adorne the same, as it ought to be.

And what do we? Surely change the case, instead of giving to build and beautifie the Church, and the maintenance of the Service of God's House, we take away the slates and timber, and all the Furniture of the Church, and, as the Psalmist prophesied of our times, all the carved works thereof; and the goodly Monuments of our pious forefathers, we break down with axes and hammers: and instead of providing the Priests Vestures for the Church-service, we are more ready to take their garments from their backs, and their bread out of their mouths.

But you will say, they were Jews, which so adorned their Temple, as you Obj. shewed before, and their Religion consisted in outward pomp, and carnal Service, whereas we are Christians; and the Kings Daughter, which is the Church of Christ, is all glorious within; and her service to God consisteth not, either in carnal Ceremonies, or external Glory, but, as Christ saith, in spirit and in truth.

I answer, That I confess the chiefest Glory of the Kings Daughter, is Sol. within, in a pure heart, and a sanctified soul; but her clothing is of wrought Gold, and her outward rayment is of needle-work, and her vesture is of pure Gold, wrought about with divers colours, very fair and glorious to behold. So our Religion and our zeal to God's Worship, must not only rest and re­side in the heart, but it must bud forth, and appear in all our outward [Page 61] actions; and God will be served, not only inwardly with our hearts, but also outwardly with all the other parts of our bodies, Quia per exteriora cog­noscuntur interiora, and our zeal to Gods Honour must shew it self by our zeal to God's House; for so King David said, and so Christ said, The zeal Psal. 69. 9. Iohn 2. 17. of thine House hath eaten me up.

And therefore, not only the Jews, but the Christians also, were most li­beral and bountiful in their gifts and contributions for the erecting of Oratories, and the adorning of Gods Church; And although, that while they were under the Sword of persecuting Tyrants, their state and condi­tion permitted them not to have stately Churches, yet when their persecu­tion ceased, and they became into a better case, and had rest, their Chur­ches became sumptuous, and no cost was spared to make them both fair and beautiful.

And we find, that before the time of Constantine, in the reign of Severus, Euseb. l. 8. c▪ 1. & 2. Idem. l. 9. c. 1. Gordian, Philip, and Galienus, there were many goodly and spatious Chur­ches builded, which Dioclesian by a publick Proclamation caused to be thrown down; but M [...]ximinus hypocritically permitteth them to be re­edified, and made up in a greater heighth, and more beautiful than they were before, as they were indeed exceedingly bettered, immediately after the death of Maximinus, as it appeareth by that Solemn Sermon, that was made in praise of the building of Churches, and expressely directed to Pau­linus Idem. l. 10. c. 4. Bishop of Tyrus. And Theodoret saith, That the Emperours Con­stantine, and his son Constantius, bestowed many rich and precious vessels upon the Church. And when S. Basil had converted Valens to become a Christian, he bestowed certain lands and possessions unto the Church. And Nicephorus saith, That Theodosius and his Wife Eudoche, sent monies very bountifully to the Bishop and Church of Rome. And Valentinian and Gratian, are exceedingly praised in the Chronicles of the Church, for their care, and the provision that they made for the Churches of Christ. And Sozomen relates, how Constantius bestowed upon the holy Church, great summes of monies that did arise to him, out of the Images that were mol­ten, and otherwise by way of Taxes and Tributes; And divers of the Christian Emperours provided, that the lands, houses, and possessions of the Church, and the goods of other Christians that had been taken from them, in the times of persecution, should be restored and re-delivered unto the Bishops and Church again. And I hope our most gracious and religious King, will do the like, that, as he is not inferiour to them in piety, so he will be no lesse in the Rules of Equity, and as, blessed be God for it, he hath most graciously restored very much, and more than any other hath done, already.

And what shall I say more? It is most apparant to any one, that will read Eusebius, Socrates, Theodoret, Sozomen, and other Ecclesiastical Wri­ters, how the first and best Christians, as they grew in strength, wealth, and power, so they studied and strived to exceed both Jews and Gentiles, in their care and zeal to promote the Honour of God, and to manifest the same unto the World by all the possible wayes they could devise; And be­cause that, as nature teacheth us, to provide good things, so wisdom and policy sheweth how we should do our best to procure the permanent state and perpetuity of those good things. And so Religion likewise teacheth us, to follow the same course, to perpetuate the Service and the Honour we yield unto our God: and the Saints and servants of God conceiving no Donation of honour to be more permanent and lasting than Churches and Temples, magnificently erected, and sumptuously maintained; therefore, they were no niggards, and spared no cost to build their Oratories and Churches, that the Worship and Honour of God, might be perpetually continued.

And very many Reasons might be produced to shew, that they should; Reasons to prove that we should honour God with our riches. Reason. 1 to the uttermost of their power, honour God with their riches, and to make the benefits they bestow for his Honour, to be permanent and du­rable: For,

1. Where any true Religion resteth in the heart, it requireth the utter­most extent that unfaigned love and affections can afford and shew to­wards God; And, as S. Gregory saith, Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est ope­ris, Our inward love and affections are to be opened and manifested by the outward effects: And therefore, wheresoever the true Religion swayeth in the hearts of men, as it ought, the outward devotion and zeal towards God's Church, and the Service of God in his Church, will be shewed, so far forth as they are inabled to do.

2. As Religion requireth, so Nature teacheth us to honour God with our 2. Reason. goods: which is, not only honestly and inoffensively to use them; but also to alienàte, separate, and set apart some portion of them from our own occa­sions, to the use and service of God, not as gifts or supplies of his wants, Quia [...]fferimus Deo bona nostra ut signa grati­tudinis pro illis donis quae à Deo recepimus. Irenaeus. l. 4. c. 34. that is the Lord of all things, but as the signs of our thankfulness and ac­knowledgement, that he is the Donor and Giver of them all to us, and as the means to set up, and to shew forth his Honour, by the erecting and beau­tifying his Churches, and the maintenance of his Worship and Ministery in those Churches: For why should any man think, that God hath given us such variety of all good things, as Gold, Silver, Cattel, Wine, Oil, and abundance of most excellent beauty, to be imployed only upon our selves, and for our pleasures, and, it may be, in meer vanities, without any regard or reservation of any of them to be bestowed, for the upholding of his Honour, and the Duties of his Service? When as Solomon saith, That Prov. 3. 9: Malach. 3. 20. he will be served with the chief of thine increase: And the Lord himself bids thee to bring all the Tythes, or Tythes of all kinds into his House: And therefore Origen, the greatest Clerk that lived in his dayes, saith, Qui colit Deum, debet donis & oblationibus agnoscere eum esse Deum omnium, He Origen. in Numb. c. 18. Hom. 11. that worshippeth God, must by his gifts and oblations unto God, acknow­ledge him to be the God and Giver of all things.

3. Seeing God requireth to be honoured with thy substance, and with the 3. Reason. Prov. 3. 9. first fruites of all thine increase, and to testifie thine inward love, by thine outward gifts and oblations to him; you know then, that the greatness and goodness of our gifts doth set forth and shew the greatness of our love, and the sincerity of our affection towards God: For, Juxta mensuram honoris erit mensura donationis, According to the quality and condition of the per­son, whom we honour, so should our gifts and our presents that we offer him be; as the greater they are, whom we honour, the greater regard we should make of the gifts and oblations that we offer unto him: As it is unseemly, and a shame for us, to present unto our Kings and Princes, or any other person of Honour, any poor, mean, base, or paltry present; So it is, if we do the like to God: And therefore the Prophet Malachy de­mandeth, If you offer unto God the blind for Sacrifice, is it not evil? and if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy Governour, Malach. 1. 8. will he be pleased with thee? saith the Lord of Hosts. So, the Lord was no wayes pleased with Cains offering, because, that having enough, and all good things from God, he kept the best for himself, and gave a little of the meanest and worst unto God: And you know what God saith, Cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing, and so, like unto Cain, keepeth the best for himself; for I am a Great King, saith the Lord of Hosts, and my Name is dreadful a­mong Verse 14. the Heathen, and therefore you should not offer unto me the poorest and the basest things you have, but the best and the greatest of all your substance.

Therefore the Gentiles, by the light of nature, and the Jews, by the ex­ample How that the Heathens, Jews & Christians, e [...]ected great and glorious Houses for the Great & Glo­rious God. And Plutarch setteth down what an infi­nite charge it cost Tarquinius Sylla, Vespasian and Domitian, to build the Temple of Ju­piter Capitoli­nus in Rome. Plutarch in the Life of Publi­cola pag. 107. & 108. of Moses, David, Solomon, and the rest of Gods Prophets, that were inspired by Gods Spirit, and all the godly and zealous Christians, that were illuminated by the light of truth, considering the greatness and the glori­ous Majesty of our Great God, that is Optimus Maximus, The Best and the Greatest of all the things that you can imagine, and is most wonderful in all his Works, conceived it fitting to erect and build such great, magnificent, and most glorious Temples, and Churches, as might seem fitting, and, so far as they were able, to make them correspondent to the Greatness, and the Glorious Majesty of that Great God, for whose Honour, Worship, and Service, they erected and dedicated the same. And such were the Temple of Apollo at Delphos, of Diana at Ephesus, of Amphiaraus, and Jupiter Olympus, and the Temple of Solomon in Hierusalem, and the Churches of S. Paul in London, and S. Peter in Westminster, and abundance more, which you may see in these Kingdoms, that our most zealous, religious, and god­ly forefathers built, and spared no cost nor charges to adorne and beautifie them most gloriously with all necessary Furnitures, for the Honour and Wor­ship of their God, and the Service of Jesus Christ.

And shall we throw down these Houses, and lay waste these Temples of God, or think much to bestow a little of our wealth, that God hath so li­berally bestowed upon us, to keep them up, and to have them competently trimed and beautified? God forbid, that our love to God's Honour, and our thankfulness to Jesus Christ, should be so little, as to do so.

CHAP. XII.

FOurthly, we have some other Sectaries more brain-sick than the for­mer; 4. Objection a­gainst the be­ing of our Churches. Psal. 137. 7. and these, under the pretence of zeal to the purity of Religion, do hotly plead for the destruction of our Churches, and cry out in the lan­guage of the Edomites, Down with them, down with them, even to the very ground; for they have been defiled and prophaned by the Idolatries and superstitions of the Popish Bishops, and their Mass-Priests: and therefore as the Lord, by a flat Precept, commanded the Israelites, saying, You shall ut­terly destroy all the places, wherein the Nations, which ye shall possess, served their gods, upon the high Mountains, and upon the Hills, and under every green Deut. 12 2, 3. 2 Chron. 17 6. 2 Reg. 18. 4. Tree; and you shall overthrow their Altars, and break their Pillars, and burn their Groves with fire; and you shall hew down the graven Images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of the place: And as Jehosaphat, accord­ing to this Precept, took away the High-places, and Groves out of Juda; and Hezechias also, removed the High-places, and brake the Images, and cut down the Groves, and brake in pieces the brazen Serpent that Moses had made, be­cause the children of Israel did burn incense to it: So should we subvert, and throw down all the Monuments of Idolatry and Superstition, and all the Places where the true Religion, and the Service of God have been abused: And accordingly, these frantick Zelots have, wheresoever they came, and [Page 64] could do it, thrown down many of our Churches, and brake in pieces the Fonts wherein they were Baptized, and threw down the Tombs and Monu­ments of their Fore-fathers, and made such havock of Gods Houses, [...] stroyed all Holy places so, as is lamentable to consider it: And [...] [...]ell us most impudently, that to hold up such places to serve God th [...]ein is no­thing else but with King Saul, to reserve the execrable and accursed things for Gods Worship, which is abominable in the sight of God.

To this I Answer, 1. That it is better to serve God in those places that Sol. 1 have been superstitiously abused, (as formerly all places were Idolatrously defiled by the Heathens) than not to serve him in any place; for as when certain Christians found a vacant and a voyd place in the City of Rome, where they thought they might conveniently build a Church, and certain loose companions, that were Victuallers, made claim, and pretended a Title unto it, and told Alexander Severus, it was not so fit, to make a House to serve God in, as it was for them to sell and vent their commodities; the Emperour, led by the light of nature, being no Christian, answered most The discreet answer of A­lexander Se­verus. Christian-like, that he thought it better, God should be Worshipped any way, and in any place, rather then that they should have their way, to make it a place for their shambles: so say I, that it is a great deal fitter, to serve God in these Houses, that were so Zealously erected and so Religiously Con­secrated for Gods service, howsoever they were afterwards soyled with some vanities, and perhaps defiled with some Idolatries, then that they should be thrown down, or be made a Stable for their Horses, or a Kitchin to dress meat for their tables, as some of these Sectaries have made these Houses of God to be.

2. I say that there is no more affinity or likeness between those times of the Israelites and our times, and betwixt that people, who were Jews, and us, that are Christians, then is betwixt Simon Peter, and Simon Magus, or Philip the Apostle, and Philip King of Macedon; for we are not comman­ded, to do against Idolaters, as they were commanded to do against the Canaanites: as, they were forbidden to make Covenants of peace, or to have any commerce with the inhabitants of that place, and they were comman­ded to root out and to destroy all that people, and we have no such injun­ction, to prohibite us to trade and traffick, either with Papists, Jews, or Gentiles; neither may the Reformed Churches and Protestants put others their neighbours to the sword, only because they are Idolaters, or of a contrary Religion, but they are rather to labour for their Conversion, as St. Paul did the Idolaters of Athens, and not to work their destru­ction.

3. I say, that the examples of Jehosaphat and Hezechias, are no comman­ding precepts, and have not the force of laws, and you know that Vivitur praeceptis non exemplis, men are to live by laws, and not by examples, where­of we have more bad then good; but were they never so good and so god­ly, yet are they no Commanders but Councellors, and no laws to injoyn us, but less [...]ns to direct us, and that in the like cases; for where the propor­tion and the equality, betwixt the example and the following of it, faileth, there we must likewise fail to follow it; and we find a great deal of dispro­portion and inequality betwixt the groves and high places of the Jews, and our Cathedrals and Churches, that were the Papists; because their groves and high places were very dangerous to be left, for the just fear of a secret access and coming unto them, by the superstitious Jews, that were alwaies so apt and so ready to fall into Idolatry; and our Cathedralls and Chur­ches are freed from this fear, when as they are throughly cleansed and purged from all the former superstitions by the pure Preaching of the Word of God, and no Idolatrous Papist comes unto them, nor any [Page 65] other, but only those that professe themselves to be of the pure Re­ligion.

And therefore learned Zanchius saith, that Ʋbique locorum in omnibus ferè Hieron. Zanch. de operibus re­demptionis. l. 1 [...] c. 12. Regnis & Provinciis, quae amplexae sunt evangelium, Templa ipsa in quibus Idola­tria admissa fuit, tot annos retenta sunt; In every place, and in all Kingdoms and Provinces wel-nigh, which have imbraced the Gospel, the Churches themselves, where Idolatry hath been committed, have been retained so many years together.

And why should they not be still used? For what evil have the Churches committed, that they, which were dedicated to such an Holy use, as is the true service of God; should be now so severely handled, as to be either quite demolished, or diverted and turned to any other purpose? For the senseless creatures cannot be said to be sinful and so not to be censured; and there­fore the Leprous mans house was rather to be purged then to be pulled down; and where the malady is uncurable, there, as the Poet saith;

The part only infected and putrified; is to be cut off, and not to cast away the whole; and so the wiser Divines threw down the Altars of those Chur­ches, where Idolatry and superstition were most used, but they thought good to keep the Churches still to their former uses.

And so, when the two hundred and fifty men offered incense unto the Lord, in the Rebellion of Kora; God himself bade Eleazar the High Priest, not to throw away those brasen Censers, which those men offered, but to imploy them for his service, and to make of them Broad plates for a covering Numb. 16. 38. of the Altar. And when Jericho was taken by the Israelites, Joshua cau­sed the Gold, Silver, Brass, and Iron that were execrable goods, not to be thrown away, but to be brought into the House of the Lord, and put into the Treasury of Gods House. And it is very well worth your observation, to Josh. 6. 26. consider what the Lord himself commandeth Gedeon to do; namely, to take his Fathers young Bullock, even the second Bullock of seven years old, (that was fed to be offered unto Baal) and throw down the Altar of Baal, and cut down the grove that is by it, and Build an Altar unto the Lord Judg. 6. 26. thy God, upon the top of this rock: and Take the second Bullock and offer a burnt Sacrifice, with the wood of the grove, which thou shalt cut down.

And according to these Presidents the Law provided, that the houses Cod. l. 1. tit 8. Valent. Mart. tit. 12. leg. 11. Honor. wherein the Hereticks did meet, and broached their damnable Divinity, should be adjudged to be united to the Orthodoxal Churches, as were also the houses and habitations of the Caelicoles that were Hereticks so called: and in Saint Augustines time, the Churches that the Donatists possessed, were not destroyd but they were taken from them, (as we took ours from the Ro­man-Priests) and were given to the Catholick Bishops.

And therefore, why should not we use those Churches, that were Religi­ously dedicated, and Holily Consecrated for Gods service, and could not themselves commit any offence, nor be so Prophaned, as the accursed things of Jericho, or the Bullock and groves of Baal, or the Churches of the Ari­ans and Donatists, to be the Temples and Sanctified Houses, wherein our people should meet to hear Gods Word, to pray unto him, and to receive his Holy Sacrament?

But I remember Plutarch, and Titus Livius tell us how that the Romans Plutarch. in vi [...]. Publicolae. pag. 113. & Tit. Livius. l. 2. pag. 57. after they had expelled Tarquinius Superbus, when his son Sextus Tarqui­nius had most shamefully ravished Lucretia, they all took a Solemn oath, they would never suffer any King to Reign over them; and because this was not sufficient to free them from the fear of a Regal Government, the [Page 66] Consul Brutus, in the behalf of the people, makes a solemn Oration to his fellow Consul Tarquinius Collatinus, to give over his Consul-ship, and to de­part the City, to free the people from that fear; because that, although [...] was a very honest man, and was a principal actor, in expelling Tarquinius Super­bus, and they could lay nothing to his charge, that ever he did or said against the liberty of the people, or for the Government of Kings▪ yet seeing his name was Tarquinius, the freedom of the City could not be fully secured, nor the men free from the fear of Tyranny so long as a person of that name, how just and innocent so ever he were, continued within the City: So I be­lieve, it is not for any evil, that these men can, or could ever espy in our Churches, they cry so much, and yell like Wolves against them; but only for the name, that they are said to be built by Roman Catholicks, and that Po­pish Priests have served in them: but it is nothing to us, who built them, or who served in them, so we serve God aright in them; this is all that we are to look unto.

For so we find, that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles, in their time frequented the Temple, not that which Solomon built, nor that which Zo­robabel erected; but that which Herod, that sought our Saviours life, buil­ded Joseph. Antiq. l. 15. c. 14. and beautified; and that which the Scribes and Pharisees had, as much as in them lay, defiled with their false-glosses, and the other Jews had made it a den of Thieves: and though Castor and Pollux were become Idols, and Matth. 21. 13. worshipped as gods among the Heathens; yet Saint Paul refused not to sail in a Ship, whose badge was Castor and Pollux; and Saint Luke is not affraid to set down those Titles of the Paganish Idols.

And therefore, as Eunomius was most foolish for refusing to enter into Socrat. Eccles. Hist. l. 2. c. 33. the Temples of the Martyrs, lest he should be thought to worship the dead; and Eustathius was most fantastical, for detesting all publick Churches, and leading his Schollers to private Conventicles in ordinary houses, for fear they should be defiled with the memorial of the Saints, that were mentioned in the Churches; so these our brethren of the Separation are most simple, for disclaiming our Churches, Prayers, and Ministry: and, like the Elder bro­ther in the Parable, hearing afar off, the melody of our prayers, and under­standing of our intertainment into our Fathers House, are very angry, and will not come into Gods House for fear of infection, but will convene in pri­vate houses, and run abroad into the fields like Esau, to hunt there for the blessing, which with Jacob, they might get nearer home, in their Fathers House; and when we would, according to our injunction, seek to compel them to come, out of the High-waies and Hedges, to the marriage of the Kings son, they will waste their wealth, leave their mansions, and, like He­liodorus the fool of Athens, sail beyond the Straights of Gibraltar, and make Ship-rack before the Tempest; rather then they will come into Gods House, whereby they might sit still, under their own Vines, injoy the food of their Fathers House, the safe-gard of their wealth, and the safety of their soules: which they do hazard, by their own simplicity, in being like the Jews, zealous, but not according to knowledge.

CHAP. XIII.

IT is well and truly observed, as the holy Scripture sheweth; That al­though the wise God hath most mercifully decreed, and accordingly ex­hibited and gave a Saviour, in himself altogether sufficient, for the saving of all Man-kind, and all the lost sons of Adam; and he hath most wisely and graciously taken a course, on his own part, and in it self also, fully sufficient; and appointed a course and order on mans part, that, being duly observed, might make the same sufficiently effectuall unto all: yet, it so fals out, that Mens destru­ction. very many men attain not to that end, for which God did send his Son, to save them, but are seized on by Gods Justice, and cast to eternal condem­nation. And that chiefly by mans own default, and, partly in some respects, through the default of his Rulers and Teachers; yet so, that he dies and suf­fers only for his own sins.

1. Through their own default, when Kings and Princes, whom God hath 1. By their own fault. appointed and set to be their Governors and Rulers, do by their under-Ma­gistrates, and their just laws prohibite them from all evil and wickedness; and require them to imbrace all virtues and godliness of life, and to this end, do appoint their substitutes, the Bishops and other Teachers to guide them, and to instruct them, to let them know what is good and what is evil; and so what they ought to believe, and what not: and these do faithfully discharge these Offices, as Moses and Aaron, David and Nathan, and many other godly Kings and Bishops did; yet, men will not obey their Governors, but Rebel like Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, and, as of late, we have done; Jer. 11. 21. they will not hearken to the voyce of their Teachers, but say to the Pro­phets, Prophesy not unto us, and say to God himself, Depart from us, for we Job. 21. 14. desire not the knowledge of thy Laws: or they relye upon their own wisdom, and account the Preaching of the Gospel of the cross of Christ foolishness; or 1 Cor. 1. 18. they follow the ill examples of their Fathers, and do worse than their Fa­thers; or they do addict themselves to the pleasures and vanities of this Jer. 18. 12. &c. 16. 12. World, that do choak the seed of Gods Word in them; or when crosses, af­flictions, and persecution come, they are offended, and start aside like a bro­ken bow. Matth. 13. 22 [...]

Then, God seeing these courses that they take, contrary to the course, that he had set down for their Salvation; he complaineth of them, that His people would not hear his voyce, and Israel would not obey him, therefore He gave them up unto their own hearts lusts, and let them follow their own ima­ginations. Ps. 81. 12, 13.

2. Though all wicked men do thus chiefly work their own destruction, 2. Mens destru­ction much [...]urthered, by the default of their Governours. yet many times, their fall and ruine is much furthered by the default and apostasie of their Prime-Governours, or at least through their neglect, and the neglect of their subordinate Magistrates and Ministers, the Bishops and Preachers that are under the Kings and Princes, the Governours of God's Church. For God, having set these Rulers, the Supreme and subordinate, to be the Watchmen and Shepherds over his people, to govern them, and teach them, how to live justly and holily, that they might attain to eternal life: if by their default, their misleading of them out of the way, or neglect to shew them the right way, the people do miscarry, the men, so misguided, and not instructed, shall die in their iniquity, and God will require their blood Ezech. 33. 8. at the Shepherds and Watchmens hands.

And yet Cain, a principal Ruler of, and over his Posterity, misleading, and not teaching them the right Worship of God, perished himself, and brought all them that followed him, and his wayes, to the like perdition. And so Nimrod, Esau, and Ismael, falling away from God, and Jeroboam setting up his golden gods, and many other Kings and Princes, neglecting their duties, apostatizing from God, and misleading their people, brought them in like manner to their utter ruine;

And as many times the people are brought to their ruine, by the evil example, and wicked Government of their Prime-Leaders, when as the Scilicet in vul­gus manant ex­emplaregentum, utque ducum li­tuos, sic mores castra sequun­tur. Claud. 1. Stilic. Poet saith,

And the Souldiers would imitate Alexander in his stoopings, and in his vices, as well, and sooner, than in his vertues; So many times, and oftner too, they are brought to the same pass, the same pathes of perdition, through the lewd examples and neglect of the subordinate Magistrates of the Com­mon-wealth, and the Governours and Ministers of the Church of God: As, when the Princes, or Nobility, are rebellious, and companions of Thieves, or, Esay 1. 23. Zephan: 3. 3. as Zephany saith, like Lions, and the Judges are evening-Wolves, that judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widdow come unto them: And when the Prophets are leight and treacherous persons, and the Priests have pol­luted the Sanctnary, and have done violence to the Law, either by corrupting it, with their false glosses, or locking it up in prison, and not publishing the Prov. 29. 18. same unto the people; for, where there is no vision, the people perish, saith the Wise-man. And so by their false teaching, or no teaching, they thrust forward the poor people into perdition.

And therefore, Kings and Princes, to whom God, in the first place, hath committed the Soveraignty and Charge, both of Church and Common­wealth, ought, not only to chuse such Judges and Magistrates, as Jethro Exod. 18. 21. described unto Moses, Able men, fearing God, men of truth, and hating cove­tousness: But, when the Cathedrals and Parochial-Churches are built and beautified for God's Worship, and for the people of God to meet in them, to serve God, as they ought to be, they should also take care and see, that What manner of Judges and Bishops, Kings ought to chuse such Bishops and Priests, as S. Paul describeth, in 1 Tim. 3. 2, &c. be setled in those Churches, to worship God, and to bring the people to do their du­ties, that they may attain to eternal life: Lest that which S. Hierom com­plained of in his time, should be true in our time, That the Altars shined with Gold and pretious Stones, Sed ministrorum nulla erat electio, There Bernard. ad Ab­bat. Cluniacen. was no good choice made of good Ministers; whereby it was said, That they had golden Chalices, but woodden Priests, as S. Bernard saith, it was, not much better in his dayes; there was not such care taken for good Ministers as they should do. For as in Nature, we see every thing for its Creation requires a Divine hand, and a Miraculous power to produce it; [Page 69] but the same being once produced, God's hand is not so conspicuous, but he leaves it to the soyl, as it were, to stand and grow by the innate vertue planted in it; So it seems to fare with Religion it self, which is such a su­perstructure above Nature, that although it be planted by God, as both the Jewish and Christian Religion were, with signs and wonders, and a strong miraculous hand, yet men must now conserve it by those ordinary means, that God appointed: the Church of Christ, being like the Garden of God in Eden, which the Lord made, and then set it to our Parents, to keep it, and to dress it.

And, though this Religion, which at first is thus powerfully planted by God, and is the principal Pillar that upholdeth States, and makes all King­doms happy; yet, after the inward vertue of the Doctrine of Christ, the Bishops and Priests, are the main props, and the ordinary means, that God hath appointed to uphold his Religion, and to continue his Service in his Church; because, Religion can neither plant it self, nor sustain it self alone, and what support soever it hath from the Prince or the Laws of any Nation; yet the Bishops and Priests are, as it were, the soul of that power, in the execution thereof, when as all the substance, circumstance and ceremonies, have their life from them; and our consent and belief in their holy Calling, is that, which doth, and should keep us, from the singularity of our own misguided imaginations.

And therefore that Prince, that is truly religious, and hath a special care Kings ought to have a special care to chuse good Bishops. of God's Service, must likewise with King David, (and as good King Charles ever had) have a special care to see that godly and learned Bishops and Priests, be appointed in God's Church to instruct his people.

And you know what S. Paul saith, That a Bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his chil­dren in subjection with all gravity, not a n [...]vice, (or a young new Divine) lest being lifted up with pride (as young men commonly are) he fall into the 1 Tim 2. 1. 2. 2, 4, 5, 6, 7. condemnation of the Devil: Moreover, he must have a good report of them that are without, lest he fall into reproach, and the snare of the Devil. All which large description of those parts and vertues, that every Bishop and faith­ful Minister of God's Church ought to have, may for order and method sake, be reduced into these two Heads, which are the Ʋrim and the Thum­mim, Levit. 8. 8. that Moses put upon the Breast-plate of Aaron, and for which he did so earnestly pray that God would grant them unto all the Tribe of Levi, saying, Let thine Ʋrim and thy Thummim be with thy holy one, or with the man of thy mercy: And they signifie, The two speci­al vertues that ought to be in every Bishop and Priest.

• 1. The uprightness of his life and conversation.
• 2. The sincerity of his doctrine & teaching of his people.

For so Moses sheweth, that Levi did, as every Bishop and Priest should do.

1. Carry himself most dutifully and obedient in his life, and all his actions 1. Vertue. towards God, as, when God proved him at Massa, and strove with him at the waters of Meriba, he said unto his father and to his mother, I have not seen him, neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor knew his own children; Verse 9. but he observed Gods word, and kept his Covenant, and preferred the keeping of God's Laws, and walking dutifully according to his will, before father or mother, wife or children, which every Christian, and especially every Christian Bishop, and true Levite, ought to do.

2. To teach Jacob the judgements of God, and Israel his Laws, to put 2. Vertue. incense before the Lord, and whole burnt-Sacrifices upon his Altar; which Verse 10. is the second duty of every Bishop, and every faithful Minister of Christ, to teach the people of God, and to administer his holy Sacraments: For his [Page 70] first care and chiefest duty should be to look to himself, [...], to 1 Tim. 3. 2. be blameless; And his second care is [...] to be apt and able to teach the people: And so S. Paul tells, and adviseth all the Clergy of Ephesus, that they should first look and take heed unto themselves, and then to all the flock, whereof the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers, to feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood; And Acts 20. 28. therefore,

1. A Bishop, and a Minister of Christ, must have a special care to carry, 1. How blame­less Bishops and Ministers should be. Luke. 1. 6. and behave himself so, as that his life and conversatiou may seem blame­less in the World, like unto Zacharias, the father of John Baptist, that wal­ked in all the Commandments of God without reproof. And S. Hierom saith, That talis, & tanta, debet esse conversatio & eruditio Pontificis, ut omnes motus & egressus, & universa ejus opera notabilia sint, veritatem mente concipiat, & eam toto habitu resonet & ornatu; ut, quicquid agit, quicquid loquitur, do­ctrina Hierom. in E­pist 43. sit populorum: The life and conversation of a Bishop, and so likewise of every Minister of the Gospel, should be such, so grave, and so holy, that all his motions, and progressions, and all other his works, should be no­table and worthy to be observed; he should conceive the truth in his mind, and sound out the same by his habit and ornament, that whatsoever he doth, and whatsoever he saith, may be a lesson of instruction unto the peo­ple, The mischief that the evil examples of Bishops and Ministers do produce. who do look more unto the examples that we give them, and the actions that we do, than to the Precepts that we preach, or the Doctrine that we declare unto them. And another Father saith, that, Nemo plus in Ecclesia nocet, quàm qui perversè agens, nomen vel ordinem sanctitatis habet: delinquen­tem nam (que) hunc redarguere nullus praesumit; & in exemplum vehementer culpa extenditur, cum pro reverentia ordinis peccator honoratur: No man doth, or indeed can do, more hurt in the Church of God, than he that doth wicked­ly, and lives dissolutely, and hath the name or order of holiness, that is, holy Orders; because no man presumeth, or dares to reprove such an one, when he offendeth, and his fault exceedingly reacheth to the example of others to do the like, when, for the reverence of his Order, they see such a wick­ed man so honoured;

And therefore, I may say to such a one, as Claudian saith to Honorius, changing only but one word,

For such men are like a City that is set upon a Hill, and all mens eyes are upon them: and therefore, their lives and their actions, cannot be concealed; but their doings are more conspicuous, and their danger far greater, than any other men: And that, as Aquinas saith, in a threefold respect.

First because, the Dispensers of the holy Sacraments and the holy Word of God, which ought not to be handled but by holy men, in which respect a holy Father saith, Mallem sustinere poenam Caiphae, Pilati, & Herodis, quàm Sacerdotis indignè celebrantis, That he would rather chuse to suffer the pu­nishment of Caiphas, and of Pilate, and of Herod, than of a wicked Bishop, or Priest, that doth unworthily administer the Blessed Sacrament.

Secondly, because these men are to render their account more strictly, being looked into more narrowly than other men; because, as S. Bernard [Page 71] saith, Those faults and transgressions, quae in aliis nugae sunt, in Sacerdotibus Cujus vita des­picitur restat ut ejus praedicatio contemnatur. Gregor. super Evangel. l. 1. Hom. 6. sunt blasphemiae; And those sins that in others seem to be but slips, and triffles, & veniâ digna, and may easily be pardoned; yet in Bishops, and the Ministers of God's word, they are heynous offences, and worthy to be punished heavily, with many stripes, seeing they knew their Masters will, and did it not.

And thirdly, because that by their Places, and Offices, they are to teach other men, not to offend; and to answer for their sins, if through their neglect they do offend: and yet by their ill lives and examples, they teach them to offend.

2. As they are, in these respects, to have a special care of their own lives 2. How careful the Bishops & Priests ought to be to teach the people. Ezech. 3. 17. &c. 33. 7. and conversations, to live justly and holily, as the servants of Christ ought to do; so they are likewise obliged to be sedulous and diligent in the in­struction and tuition of the people committed under their charge; for they are made the Watchmen and Shepherds over God's people, to teach them and instruct them, what they should do, and what they should believe; even as our Saviour saith unto his Apostles, Go ye and teach all Nations, baptizing them, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Matth. ult. 19. 20. Ghost, and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And therefore S. Paul chargeth Bishop Timothy before God, and before Jesus Christ, that he preach the word, and be instant in season, and out 2 Tim. 4. 1, 2. 1 Cor. 9. 16. of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine: and he saith, Wo is me if I preach not the Gospel. And S. Gregory saith, Oportet ut praedicatores sint fortes in praeceptis, compatientes infirmis, terri­biles Greg. in Mor. 30. super Job 39. in minis, in exhortationibus blandi, in ostendendo magisterio humiles, in rerum temporalium contemptu dominantes, & in tolerandis adversitatibus ri­gidi: It behoves, that Preachers should be strong and strict in their pre­cepts, compassionate and pitiful to the weak, terrible in their threatnings to the impenitent, smooth and gentle in their exhortations; in shewing their power and authority, humble; in despising the world, and all worldly things, stout and domineering; and in suffering and bearing adversities firm and constant; And the same S. Gregory saith also, that Non debet praedica­tor Idem. Moral: l. 17. infirmis insinuare cuncta quae sentit, nec debet praedicare rudibus quanta cog­noscit; which is a very good lesson.

And so you see partly, what the Bishops and Ministers of Christ ought to do, and how to behave themselves in the Church of God.

Yet I must confesse, we and our Predecessors, the Bishops of God's Dan 9. 5. Church, have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wick­edly, and have rebelled, even by departing from God's Precepts, and neg­lecting the performance of our duties; for whereas,

And as S. Gregory saith, Lux gregis est flamma doctoris, The light whereby the flock walketh, is the shining flame of the Shepherds life; Yet many of our Predecessors, I am sure, and I pray God that none of our present Pre­lates may do the like, have given very evil examples unto the people, if the example of covetousness, injustice, and the obstructing and neglect of Gods Service, and the furtherance of mens salvation be evil examples; for, let­ting passe what we find written of Pope Sixtus the Fourth, of whom this Epitaph was made:

[Page 72] And of Alexander the sixth, that made a league with the Devil, as Ba­laeus saith, to obtain his Papacy, and of whom it was said, as I shewed be­fore.

And of Boniface the eighth, and divers others wicked Popes, that preten­ded to be the Bishops and Vicars of Christ, but were indeed the limbs of Anti-Christ: We find nearer home that what pious men and good Christians had formerly most zealously bestowed upon the Church and Churchmen for the Honor of God, the relieving of the poor, and the promoting of the Christian faith, many of our own Bishops most wickedly and Sacrilegiously, either through Covetousness for some fine, or for love and affection to their Children, friends or servants, have alienated and made away the same from their Successors, in Fee-farm, or long leases, some for one thousand, some for one hundred years; and some for other longer term, reserving only some small rent for the succeeding Bishops, as in my Diocess of Ossory, that Lordship was set for ten pound yearly, that is well-nigh worth two hun­dred pound; and that was set for [...]our pound, which is better worth then fifty pound, with many others in the like sort; whereby we that come af­ter them, and they that shall come after us, are neither able to keep Hos­pitality, nor to feed the poor, nor scarce our selves, and our own families; nor indeed to do any other work of piety and service of God, which the Scripture requireth us to do.

And if these things be not wickedness and a high degree of abominable Sacriledge; mine understanding fails me; and this, being Sacriledge, I know not what laws can make it good. Let them have what Laws and what Acts of Parliament soever they please to justify their doings, I know not how those Laws and Acts of Parliament will or can justify them, before the Throne of the just God.

And therefore, not to do my self, what I blame in others, lest God should condemn me out of mine own mouth: as my good God hath hitherto preser­ved me, and kept my hands clean from all Corruption, and from taking any the least bribe or gift from any man, or any service, but what I paid for, e­ven in my poorest state, and meanest condition, when I had not for many years together twenty pound per annum to maintain me; so I have resolved, and do pray to God continually to give his grace to perform it, and do hope that God will grant it me, that I will never take either bribe for any thing, or gift from any man, or fine for any House, Land, or Lordship, that belongs either to my Deanery, or Bishoprick, while I live, if, I should live a thousand years: but, what shall be for the repaire of the Church.

And besides all this, and many other faults in their own lives, of less moment, I have often bemoaned one offence of some of my brethren above all the rest, when I considered how they, not following the Counsel of St. Paul in the Ordination of Priests and Deacons, To lay hands on no man rashly; but to see that the persons that are to be admitted to holy Orders, should be no novices, that is, no young Divines, because as Saint Gregory saith, Nequaquam debent homines in aetate infirma praedicare, Men ought not to Preach in their young and tender years; Quia juxta rationis usum, sermo do­ctrinae non suppetit, nisi in perfecta aetate, because that according to the use of Reason, Learning, and Wisdom, is not attained unto, but in perfect age; Et Redemptor noster, cum Cael [...] si [...]conditor & Angelorum Doctor, ante tricennale Greg. sup. Ezech. Ho. 2. & in Pastor. tempus, in terra magister noluit fieri hominum; ut videlicet praecipitatis vim sa­luberrimi timoris infunderet, cum ipse etiam qui labi non posset, perfectae vitae gratiam, non nisi perfecta aetate praedicaret: And our Redeemer, that is the [Page 73] Creator of the Heavens and Teacher of Angels, would not be made the Teacher of men here on Earth before he was thirty years of age; that so he might powre forth the force and fruit of wholesome fear to them that are fallen, when as he also, that could not fall, did not preach the grace and waies of a perfect life, but in a perfect age; and to see likewise that they should be no waies unworthy of so high a calling, but every way qualified, both for life and doctrine, so, as the Word of God doth require: have notwithstanding, either by the solicitation of friends, or for some other respects, and perhaps worser Corruption, many times made young novices, illiterate men; and, which is far worse, men of corrupt minds, and of bad lives, of loose dissolute carriage, the Priests of the most High God, to wait at his Altar, that were not worthy to wait on our Table. And therefore▪ as those Bishops that did thus, did herein falsify their Faith to God, and betrayed his service to these unworthy men; So, the just God hath most just­ly suffered these perfidious men, to betray their makers, to spit in their Fa­thers faces, and to combine themselves with the enemies of Christ, to de­stroy the Bishops of Gods Church, and so, as the Poet saith in another kind,

This wicked brood that we our selves begat and made, would drive their Sires from their hives, and from our offices.

And I know not by what fatality, unless it be by the just wrath of God, to intail the wickedness of the Fathers, like the Leprosy of Gehezi, unto the Children, for the sins and injustice of the Fathers that are so well known, and ingraven in the consciences of the Children; yet, so it is most gene­rally found, that the Children of the precedent Bishops, that have most wronged the Church and their Successors, are in all things most contra­riant Why the sons of Bishops are most spiteful [...] unto the Suc­ceeding Bi­shops. and opposites, I will not say spiteful, or envious to the succeeding Bishops: because, as I conceive, their hearts tell them, what injuries their Fathers did them, for their sakes, and themselves continue therein; and therefore do conceive, that the present Bishops cannot think well nor love them, that have so much wronged, both them and the Church of God, and to requite them, according to their own thoughts, with hate for hate, they are of all others most spiteful crossing and prejudiciall unto them: or else, because they do imagine, that the present and succeeding Bishops, will be as wicked and as unjust, as their Fathers, and their predecessors were, and therefore deserve neither love nor favour from them; And I heard many As Alexander the Copper­smith with stood S. Paul; So the last Bishops son withstandeth me, to recover the rights of the Church, Parliament men say that in the Long Anti-Christian Parliament, none were more violent against the Bishops, then the sons and posterity of Prece­dent Bishops: I found it so.